The Jihad Against Free Speech

The Atlas Society - The Center for Objectivism ^ | Winter 2005 | Edward Hudgins

[Ed Hudgins]

[In solidarity with South Park, which has been censored by network cowards in response to threats by Islamist savages, we re-post this item from our achieves.]

The West once again has been forced to confront the clash of cultures. Muslims worldwide rage and riot over Danish newspaper cartoons that, in their eyes, commit the double sin of depicting Mohammad and satirizing him disrespectfully. Many Muslims consider any illustration of their prophet to be an insult to their religion. Of course, other religions often find their ideas and icons satirized or criticized. Yet rarely do they respond with death threats, riots, arson, and murder.

There’s a noteworthy irony in the violent Islamic reaction to the publication of the cartoons. The editors of the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten printed them to illustrate a story about self-censorship by the European press over fear of offending Muslims, who now make up substantial minorities in EU countries. Part of the story concerned the difficulty that a Danish author had in finding any artist to illustrate his educational book about Mohammad and Islam, intended for Danish children. So to make that point, some of the cartoons associate Mohammad’s image with terrorism and intimidation. (See the cover of the printed version of this issue, and the cartoon on page 9.) The violent response by radical Muslims simply confirms the grim message of the cartoons.

All this follows on the heels of the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid, the summer riots in France by North African Muslim immigrants, the murder of Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands for criticizing Muslim mistreatment of women, and a long string of death threats and fatwas issued by Muslim clerics against perceived enemies—including, most notably, author Salman Rushdie. The new threats against the artists…

[GraceG]

[bleep] [bleep] [bleep]

[bleep]’s name is now a curse word.

[Uncle Miltie]

[SpinyNorman]

Ah yes, the religion of peace!

[SpinyNorman]

“We’re not violent, intolerant cavemen, and if you say we are, we will kill you!”

Nice.

[Deb]

These stories about the cartoon uprising never include the fact that a radical imam who was expelled from the UK deliberately manufactured highly offensive, fake cartoons that he mixed with the real ones and incited the riots.

Also, there's nothing in the Koran that forbids the depiction of Muhammad. Its a total fiction.

[Ed Hudgins]

[Rappini]

This reminded me of something Edmund Burke said, All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

[HighlyOpinionated]

The most heinous and barbaric crime in this world would be to stop an individual to think freely. And when such a crime is legalised in the form of a religion, one can easily imagine how disastrous it can be. Islam is such a religion.

Islam imposes a threat to the whole world which is far worse than deforestation, nuclear destruction or AIDS. It is an insidious, devilish disease creeping into the veins of the world. Every individual must realise the destructive and evil nature of this religion, for it eats away at the very foundation of humanity which is an individual's ability to think individually and act accordingly.

http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/index.html

[Ed Hudgins]

Even worse is those like the comwardly Comedy Central top brass who actually give in to evil, peeping their pants and shivering in terror at verbal threeat. Then again, they are not good men.