Denmark struggles with speech issues. What is sedition? What constitutes incitement? These issues will be paramount in the western world for a long time to come. From the Washington Post, or as Hugh Fitzgerald calls it, the Bandar Beacon, with thanks to Kemaste.
COPENHAGEN -- Said Mansour, a slightly built man with a bushy beard, believes Muslims have a right to kill Americans in Iraq because, he said, "This is war; it's not a picnic."So, he explained in an interview last week, he had no qualms about downloading and burning CDs of Internet videos depicting beheadings in Iraq and speeches by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the terrorist mastermind behind much of the Iraqi insurgency.
Now, Danish police intend to make Mansour, 45, a Moroccan-born Danish citizen, the first person ever charged under an anti-terrorism law enacted in 2002 that forbids instigation of terrorism or offering advice to terrorists. Police sources said Mansour would probably be charged for distributing CDs that contained the inflammatory jihadist speeches and gruesome images.
The law contains curbs on free speech that are remarkable in a country famous for tolerating all points of view. It illustrates how democracies across Europe are adopting tougher measures in an era of rising extremist violence, despite protests that civil liberties are being sacrificed in the process.
The 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people, and the London bombings last month, which killed 56 people, including the four bombers, have added new urgency to the issue.
"We have to look at reality," said Rikke Hvilshoj, Denmark's minister of refugee, immigration and integration affairs, noting that some have abused Denmark's free speech guarantees to encourage violence and killing. "The day we don't have freedom of speech, the fundamentalists have won," she said. "On the other hand, we can't be naive."
Experts said the debate about how to balance anti-terrorism protections with individual freedoms is at the top of the agenda for European nations. The issue is particularly acute in Denmark, Italy and Poland -- which have troops in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led military coalition and fear they could be the next target -- and in Spain, following the train attacks there.
"The mood has shifted in Europe more toward security than it was before the London bombings," said Daniel Keohane, senior research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London. "The Europeans have always been very nervous about infringing on civil liberties. But when you experience terrorism, it changes your views."...
I hope this is a genuine sign of Europe finally waking up to the Islamist threat. Meanwhile, no matter how hard I try, I can't cast off my specticism about Denmark's capability to overcome the desease of political correctness as well as the formidable force of the leftist apologists, and finally start taking stiff action against the Islamofascist that have permeated the country it on all fronts.
The conservative government that is currently in power inspires some hope, but the recent public reaction to the PM daring to voice his support of Israel (sic!!!) makes me fear that it'll take another bombing, and this time in the midst of Copenhagen, to convince the Dutch public of the fact that the Islamist threat is real.
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dolphin, CAGE co-founder.
http://www.acage.org
Baby steps, that's all. By the time Europe wakes up, it would be too late... Muslims would be 30% of the population, much energized and very radical. At that point, nothing under the scope of western liberalism, that is, can be done to stem the tide. Israel, the toughest mama of the block, turned Dhimmi after it was overwhelmed by both the human and finical costs of Jihad as well as massive pressure from the Dhimmi administration of Bush. If countries where human rights is not as big of issue like the Philippians, Thailand, and Russia cannot due much to break the back of their native Muslim insurgency, what could soft-hearted, liberal, socialist, democratic Europe do?
"The day we don't have freedom of speech, the fundamentalists have won,"
That can be rephrased as "The day the fundamentalists have won, we won't have freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom.
"The day we don't have freedom of speech, the fundamentalists have won,"
It is probably one of the most obvious, most revered and least challenged piece of nonsense.
Since when is forcing the West to outlaw jihad propaganda defined as victory by the "fundamentalists"?
If THAT is their victory then let’s kick Moslems out of the West thus making their triumph complete.
Will Europe wake up in time ?
Will north america wake up in time....sure doesn't look like it to me.
And if our societies do respond before the knife starts cutting, what will we do ? Especially if, as i believe, we finally appreciate that the problem IS islam itself.
Anyway, good news from the Danish, baby step not withstanding.
Defending the speech of those who are out to destroy freedom of speech is NOT what is required by a free people.
The apparent paradox was answered in the pithy quip:
"The Constitution is not a suicide pact."
And:
You do not allow one man, one vote, one time.
I'm sure these brave words from Queen Margrethe of Denmark will be music to your ears!:
"We are being challenged by Islam these years - globally as well as locally. It is a challenge we have to take seriously. We have let this issue float about for too long because we are tolerant and lazy."
"We have to show our opposition to Islam and we have to, at times, run the risk of having unflattering labels placed on us because there are some things for which we should display no tolerance."
"And when we are tolerant, we must know whether it is because of convenience or conviction."
Long live Queen Margrethe! Long may she reign over the Danes!
"Will Europe wake up in time ?
Will north america wake up in time?"
The longer one allows a cancer to grow, the more extreme will be the measures necessary to fight it. It is those forces in our civilization who are hampering our early measures to root out this cancer who will be morally responsible for the horrible yet necessary measures we will have to take when Islam takes off its mask and revives its Mohammedan conquests.
In this sense, Neville Chamberlain was morally responsible for the horrible measures (fire-bombing of German cities) which Churchill had to implement later on.