It begins: the attempt to impose dhimmi laws forbidding non-Muslims to insult Islam or Muhammad upon the West, via multiculturalist hate speech laws. From CTV.ca, with thanks to all who sent this in:
The publisher of a Calgary-based magazine is defending his decision to reprint eight cartoon depictions of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad today….
Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant called the caricatures “innocuous,” and said he’s “ashamed” that more Canadian media outlets, including CTV, have chosen not to run them….
On CTV Newsnet, Levant said although Islam forbids depictions of its Prophet, “I don’t follow Muslim law, I follow Queen Elizabeth’s law.
“I don’t follow the Koran, I follow the Canadian Constitution and there are two key parts to the Canadian constitution I’m relying on: one is freedom of expression and the other is cultural diversity (enshrined in) the Constitution.”
‘What do they contribute?’
But Mohamed Elmasry, leader of the Canadian Islamic Congress, warned on Sunday that his organization will seek to have charges laid against Levant’s publication under Canada’s hate laws.
And Tarek Fatah, of the Muslim Canadian Congress, called Levant’s decision to publish “totally unnecessary and provocative.”
“If the contention of these folks is that people want to see these cartoons, they’re available across the Web,” Fatah told CTV Newsnet. “So the intention is not to inform the readers about the cartoons, but it is primarily to incite and add fuel to the fire.”
Fatah said he believes newspapers have a democratic right to publish the cartoons, but said doing so would only add to the pain felt by Muslims around the world.
“All I ask them is, what do they contribute? What exactly are they trying to achieve out of that? Have they not seen the turmoil that has been caused by the repeated publication of these cartoons?”
Levant, meanwhile, asks why society finds it more acceptable to poke fun of the Christian faith, before pointing to a recent cover of Rolling Stone magazine which shows hip hop artist Kanye West made up to look like Jesus.