Posted on 01/04/2008 2:06:42 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Author and magazine editor Jed Babbin is very concerned about two cases being decided in foreign courts that he believes could have an adverse effect on First Amendment rights in the U.S.
Jed Babbin, editor of Human Events, served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration. He explains that a Muslim with possible connections to terrorist funding is using a British court to sue Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, an American author who wrote a book critical of Islam that sold in Britain on the Internet. And in Canada, a similar case has been brought against Mark Steyn, who republished a portion of his anti-Muslim book in a Canadian magazine.
"So now the question is, will the American courts say that a British court can't do this -- and so far they have declined to do so," says Babbin. "The case of Mark Steyn is just as bad."
Babbin says while neither the British court nor the Canadian Human Rights Commission has jurisdiction over American authors, they can create enough bad publicity to make it difficult for the authors to get future works published.
"People like Mark Steyn and Rachel Ehrenfeld are now risky business for publishers," says the journalist. "A publisher who relies on any degree of international sales or has any assets in a foreign country could be at risk by these foreign courts doing what they're doing."
Babbin says every presidential candidate should speak loudly and clearly against this encroachment of foreign law on the First Amendment.
Ehrenfeld's book is called Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It. Steyn authored America Alone.
PING!
PING!
bttt
Not quite correct. The Canadian case has been filed in several provincial Human Rights Commissions, not in court. The Human Rights Commissions have the unique distinction of never once having ruled in the favor of the defendant in over 30 years. The case was also filed against Macleans magazine, the Canadian equivalent of Time magazine, not against Steyn personally.
FWIW, although Steyn lives in the US most of the time, he is a Canadian citizen.
Already have. or didn’t you notice?
Lenin would have been proud...
So if a Brit muzzie buys a US published book over the internet that offends his barbarian sensibilities and subsequently wins in Brit court, then . . . ?
This clown is a very rich saudi cockroach, disguised as an "Irish citizen"...
Hot Air audio: How one wealthy jihad supporter is using UK courts to kill American free speech Mulsim “prince”, Irish citizen successfully gets book about islam funding terrorism banned.
Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz
There is little question in my mind that this clown's concern about abuse of islam is entirely funded by the government of Saudi Arabia.
With friends like those...
Babbin says every presidential candidate should speak loudly and clearly against this encroachment of foreign law on the First Amendment.
Well that kind of kills McInsane's campaign doesn't it.
Quote the nut job...
"He [Michael Graham] also mentioned my abridgment of First Amendment rights, i.e. talking about campaign finance reform.. I know that money corrupts.. I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected, that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I’d rather have the clean government."
Now go back to the senate Johnny and write some more Terrorist Protection Laws with your buddies Kennedy and Kerry.
First let them speak loudly and clearly against their OWN encroachment of said Fist Amendment.
McCain and Thompson first.....I'll wait.
No, this is not about Massachusetts.
No, that's why we have the 2nd amendment
He supposedly cares about the sovereignty of the U.S., but doesn't seem to give a damn about any other country's sovereignty.
The First Amendment is only applicable to the U.S. No other country is required to have a First Amendment.
If someone wants to make money selling stuff in another country, then they need to follow the laws of that country.
It may be OK for Chinese children to play with lead-painted toys, but not American children.
If if is not OK for Canadians or English to read bad things about Muslims, then you had better not try to sell books in Canada or England that say bad things about Muslims.
In a better world it would be nice if every country could manage to support free speech, but evidently that is not the case.
And if the U.S. ever hopes to have other countries respect our sovereignty, then we had better respect theirs.
How dare you say such a thing!?
The knee-jerk crowd will likely kick you for that!
And yet if someone we agree with like Mark Steyn is trying to sell to Canadians what Canadians now consider to be pornographic, i.e. the truth about radical Muslims, then Freepers all decide to have a hissy-fit.
And what of the people in Canada who yearn for the freedom they traditionally enjoyed until the Pearson/Trudeau years?
I think much of the anti-American sentiment in Canada is by and of the elites, trying to keep us little peons from getting ideas from our neighbor south of the border, ideas like... uh, free speech matters and people have intrinsic worth as individuals, not as whatever interest group they came from?
I wish individual Canadians well, but I sure with they would regain their collective backbone and run the Stalinists out of town on a rail ... or just throw them to the polar bears as an aid to the environment!
Canada is on your front door... Americans can’t afford to ignore it, for good or ill. Too bad nobody is doing a campaign to sell the concepts to the average Canadian.
At this rate Britain will be just another province of Pakistan.
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