- Will the European governments that ban
any talk about the Nazis not having murdered 6 million Jews start rounding
up the newspaper editors who published the Muhammad cartoons and start
putting them on trial for crimes against Islam? European governments and
their media mouthpieces appear to use the mantle of free speech to justify
publishing supposed insults against Muslims. But what about the free speech
rights of people who dare to go against conventional thinking of Nazi atrocities
committed against Europe?s Jews?
-
- These Holocaust deniers, revisionists
and skeptics don?t have any rights to free speech in many European countries
(and Canada), unlike their brethren who dare to publish images of the Prophet
Muhammad but don?t face criminal charges. David Irving now must spend the
next three years in prison for giving two speeches in Austria in 1989.
Ernst Zundel faces up to five years in prison for publishing his opinions
on the Zundelsite website while living in Canada.
-
- Should people who downplay the Confederate
States of America?s treatment of slaves and the U.S. government?s treatment
of Native Americans face criminal charges? Should the people who publicly
contend that the U.S. government was justified in killing hundreds of thousands
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki face criminal charges? Should the people who
deny the wickedness of the U.S. invasions of Vietnam and Iraq faces criminal
charges? Should the people who deny the wickedness of Israel?s conduct
against Palestinians face criminal charges? Of course not!
-
- We are dealing with a simple yet extremely
dangerous case of nation-states gone wild. Instead of addressing their
complicity in modern-day atrocities?such as providing either unabashed
logistical support for or tacit approval of the U.S. government?s crimes
around the world?these governments arrest people for public speech.
-
- Irving, Zundel and others who face criminal
charges of ?denying the Holocaust? have not committed violence against
anybody. They have not given orders to soldiers to invade and occupy another
country. They have not given orders to police or soldiers to arrest and
imprison individuals without charges. They have not given approval to secret
police, soldiers or prison guards to torture individuals.
-
- Irving, Zundel and others have expressed
their opinions about one of the most despicable periods in our world?s
history. These expressions might anger people. But these people are not
in positions of power today that would give them the means to implement
policies that mimic the conduct of the Nazis.
-
- Today, the leaders of liberal democratic
governments are the ones with the authority (and police and military firepower)
to mimic selected policies of the Nazis and the policies of other notorious
regimes in our world?s history without fear they will face the consequences
of their deadly actions.
-
- If one does not like what some people
might say or write about the Holocaust, then that person should ignore
it. If one does not like images of the Prophet Muhammad published in newspapers,
then that person should ignore them.
-
- What we should not ignore is when nation-states,
with their monopoly on violence, lock up people for expressing their opinions
about government atrocities committed 60 years ago. More important, we
should not ignore the fact that the governments that are locking up individuals
for speaking their mind about the actions of the Nazis are the same governments
aiding and abetting (or refusing to denounce and stop) the atrocities committed
today by the world?s only superpower and its confederates. -Mark Hand
-
-
- http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/irving02202006/
|
