What lesson will Europe draw from the Charlie Hebdo massacre? Will it get serious about ending Muslim extremism within its borders, or will it try even harder to curb offensive political cartoons and speech about Islam? Up to this point, Europe has responded to Islamist violence in retaliation against ridicule, and even against sober critique of Islam, by taking the latter course. In 2008, the EU mandated religious hate-speech laws, with European officials indignantly declaring that there is no right to religious insult. More revealingly, one official European commission delicately explained that this measure was taken to preserve social peace and public order in light of the increasing sensitivities of certain individuals who have reacted violently to criticism of their religion. Europe was frightened and wanted to cool down its angry Muslim populations and appease the censorship lobby that claims to represent them in the 56-member-state Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Since 2004, it had seen the assassination of Theo van Gogh in an Amsterdam street for his and Ayaan Hirsi Alis film on abuses against Muslim women; worldwide Muslim riots and economic boycotts over an obscure Danish newspapers caricatures of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; and yet more rioting and murders after Pope Benedict presented a paper to an academic audience at Regensburg University that questioned Islams position on reason. The subjective hate-speech laws were intended to placate those -- including Irans Ayatollah Khomeini, who in 1989 issued a fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie -- who demand that Europe police its own citizens for conformity to Islamic blasphemy codes. European leaders insisted that this could be accomplished while somehow still upholding Western principles of free speech. These hate-speech laws have failed in both aims. Islamist extremism continues to grow in Europe, while speech critical of Islam is undertaken at ever greater personal risk, including risk of criminal prosecution. Some are so intimidated that they remain silent even when it is their duty to speak up. The gang rapes of 1,400 British girls in Rotherham by men of Pakistani origin went unreported for 16 years reportedly because officials were reluctant to say something critical of Muslims, who were the perpetrators in that case. aina.org/news/20150112184035.htm
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 06:20:24 +0000
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