Posted on 02/22/2015 12:01:30 PM PST by Kaslin
In Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times, President Obama previewed his address on violent extremism by saying that, “Our campaign to prevent people around the world from being radicalized to violence is ultimately a battle for hearts and minds.”
President Obama could not be more correct in this statement.
However, he also nearly half the world’s countries, intellectuals, journalists, and bloggers face a constant threat of punishment if their works are deemed blasphemous or insulting to religions or moral standards. In some nations where blasphemy and apostasy laws are taken most seriously such as Pakistan and Iran, these crimes carry extreme penalties like lifetime imprisonment or even death.
Supporters of these laws claim that they exist to protect religious minorities from harmful discrimination and to promote religious harmony among differing faiths. In reality, these legal tools do nothing but encourage extremists to enforce their concept of truth upon others and dangerously define governments as the arbiters of religious truth.
Consider the example of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws implemented by the military dictator General Zia-ul Haq. For decades, the Pakistani government and Islamic radicals have used these laws as justification for violence and injustice committed against thousands of Pakistani citizens. And when government officials like Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti display the courage to oppose the nation’s blasphemy laws, they are promptly assassinated or silenced by the Pakistani Taliban or other extremist groups.
Even worse, in Taseer’s case, the assassin received valiant support from over 500 Muslim clerics and was showered with rose petals while being praised for his “defense” of Islam as he entered the courtroom for his trial (if you can call it that).
As I stated before, these heinous incidents are not isolated to Pakistan.
In 2007, the Saudi government used blasphemy laws to condemn cyber activist and writer Raif Badawi to ten years in prison, 1,000 lashes, and a fine of 1 million riyals ($266,000 euros). His crime—launching the website Liberal Saudi Network, an online discussion forum that aimed to promote political, religious, and social debate in Saudi Arabia.
Just last December, the Mauritanian government handed down the death sentence to blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed for criticizing the nation’s caste system. During his trial, the prosecution accused the young blogger of “making flippant references to the prophet Mohammed and violating the divine order.”
Egregious and ridiculous charges like these abound across the Muslim world. Such censorship of religious and political dissent amount to nothing less than a violation of human rights.
Since 2001, the United States government has made it clear that it will fight terrorism and violent extremism. Unfortunately, more than a decade of war has taught us that military action abroad and surveillance at home is not enough.
It’s time for America to take a firm and principled stance against the main roadblock to progress in the Islamic world—censorship and the suppression of dissenting thought.
How can we hope to win the hearts and minds of Muslims around the world unless we actively work to ensure that they have the ability to engage in dialogue that promotes tolerance, pluralism, and peace? For too long the United States has turned a blind eye toward our Muslim “allies” who shield fundamentalist Islam from criticism. It is not enough for these “allies” to passively condemn acts of violence and terrorism while their regimes endorse the idea of punishing blasphemy at the same time.
First, the President needs to use events like this week’s summit to call out nations that merely pay lip service to fighting extremism, yet lack true action. For leverage, the US could threaten to limit or revoke certain forms of foreign aid. This could prove quite effective given that a clear majority of nations on the United States’ top 25 recipients of economic and military aid happen to be countries that maintain and enforce blasphemy laws.
On a more positive note, the United States could use expansion of trade as an incentive for nations to pursue domestic reforms. The Obama administration should urge Congress to draft legislation that would grant temporary duty-free, quota-free access to the U.S. market for exports of selected Muslim countries. To ensure that the agreement leads to reform, the legislation could include clauses that revoke the agreement for nations who do not show progress towards enhancing free speech, free expression, and toleration of dissent.
Ultimately, freedom of speech is the greatest weapon that individuals across the world can use to combat fundamentalism and violent extremism. Criticism and the ability to express dissent are essential to win the fight against immoral practices carried out in the name of any fundamentalist religion.
For as long as leaders both inside and outside the Islamic faith are barred from speaking out against radical fundamentalism, the hearts and minds of Muslims across the globe will remain out of reach.
What,s best to use in combating jihad?
Last week it was jobs...
>>What,s best to use in combating jihad?
Free speech that goes like this:
This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than the enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. My rifle and I know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, or the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit.
My rifle is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other.
Before God I swear this creed. My rifle and I are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life.
So be it, until victory is America’s and there is no enemy.
Nuke Mecca.
When you have multiculturalism and hate crime laws like Europe free speech is an illusion and this country is on its way to resembling Europe.....
According to Obama extremism is fought if one is for slavery on the secret Democrat plantation.
This is why homosexuals are essentially nowadays paid to stay homosexual.
Must be.
Otherwise totalitarians would not focus so much on eliminating it.
As in taking control of it via the FCC...
This is really good stuff, thank you for posting this :)
Free Speech and an AR will trump Free Speech any day...
Don’t know about free speech, since muzzies don’t seem to understand much beyond their silly little sayings.
However, superior devastating force might do the trick.
Maybe, but I think tactical nuclear weapons provide a viable alternate choice.
According to the Atlantic in an article dated yesterday, a NYT reporter named James Risen, and a number of others, are on the warpath over this administration’s censor happy ways.
PC must die!
Just experiencing Political Correctness should give us all a taste of the slippery-slope nature of such things and how corrosive it is to society.
That explain 0’s move to take control of the Internet via Operation (Un)Net Neutrality against the will of The American People
Post WWII Russia used a lot of politically correct terminology in order to glaze over and attempt to solve their misery.
Today on face the nation, an Obummer spokeswoman said that “we can defeat ISIS by using the internet.”
Well if I see an ISIS, I`ll throw my mouse at him.
I just unfriended them on Facebook. That’ll larn ‘em.
I can still recite that in my sleep.
Semper Fi.
L
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