- Increasingly, "hate speech" and "hate
crimes" make headlines in world media. These are two labels Jefferson
and Madison wouldn't have even known. Our Founding Fathers laid a framework
for free speech and freest possible action. Crime was defined as rights-violating
action committed by one individual against another-not politically incorrect
speech or beliefs about a community. That simple, individual rights-based
idea of justice is disappearing fast.
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- Close to 70 percent of Americans favor an expanded federal
hate crimes law, which would stiffen penalties for real crimes if those
crimes are committed because of a politically incorrect "bias."
There are national laws against hate speech in the UK, Germany, France,
New Zealand, Norway, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, South Africa, Switzerland
and more. These speech and thought crime laws empower government to prosecute
citizens for expressing unapproved political or religious beliefs, according
to conscience.
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- "Anti-hate" speech laws are primarily the creation
of activist Jews-and that's the problem. Christian patriots, afraid to
offend "God's chosen people," have been largely silent about
this insidious and powerful threat to freedom. Today, Muslims are more
likely than Jews to be blamed for assaults on free speech.
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- AJC Passes the Buck
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- Last month the American Jewish Congress launched a coalition
to defend free speech from the assault allegedly launched by Muslim nations.
The AJC claims Muslim "anti-blasphemy" laws are the real threat
to free speech in Western nations. Conservative media like Human Events
and Fox News have also turned on their sirens about this alleged threat.
Meanwhile, the real source of speech laws-Jewish organizations such as
the Anti-Defamation League-goes uncritiqued.
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- AJC co-executive director Marc Stern even wrote an op-ed
for the Jewish Telegraph Agency to wring his hands over the assault on
freedom. The headline commands, "Don't defend religion by silencing
free speech." What a good thought. If only Stern directed a little
righteous wrath at his co-religionists. The article aims only at Muslim
antagonists, who want a UN resolution banning defamation of religion.
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- Stern warns, "By making such 'defamation of religion'
a crime under international law, nations would be able to seek extradition
and trial abroad of persons who make statements critical or offensive to
one or all faiths anywhere in the world." How right he is. Of course
he fails to mention that Jewish activists have already succeeded in doing
this very thing. Stern says a Muslim group is seeking to extradite the
Danish cartoonist to stand trial in Jordan for defaming Mohammed. He makes
no mention of Jewish attempts to extradite Holocaust scholar Dr. Frederick
Toben to Germany to stand trial for "online anti-Semitism."
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- "Of course, offensive things about specific religions
are said," remarks Stern. "Some of these are gratuitously offensive-even
demonstrably false-and many are simply rudeIt is a mistake to impose civility
by force of law, and to confuse sensitivity with criminality." Thank
you, Mr. Stern. Please tell the ADL.
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- You might also send the free speech memo to the prosecutors
hauling up David Ahenakew for his second hate crimes trial.
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- Second Hate Trial for 75-year-old Former Politician
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- "What does it take to get a conviction for wilfully
promoting hatred in Canada?" Steven Slimovitch, B'nai Brith Canada's
national legal counsel, whined to Canadian news. In 2002, Ahenakew called
Jews a "disease." It was clearly an unkind statement, but worse
has been said of Christians and other religious people. Ahenakew also expressed
support for Nazi genocide and was fined $1,000. In 2006, that conviction
was overturned. Now, after a six-year legal battle, Ahenakew is being forced
back into court.
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- His beliefs are unquestionably offensive and also wrong.
But I'm also offended by militant atheists like Christopher Hitchens, author
of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, who said, "It's
a shame that there is no hell for [Rev. Jerry] Falwell to go to."
I'm offended by ADL head Abe Foxman blaming the New Testament for centuries
of anti-Semitic persecution. I consider a lot of beliefs and speech offensive
and wrong, and so do you (no matter how tolerant you flatter yourself to
be). Humans have been offending each other since God created us. It's a
real problem when people abuse their government power to silence those
who offend them. (Particularly since the powerful are most offended by
speech that points out their abuses.)
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- Canadians are realizing this too late.
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- Canadians Hate their Hate Laws
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- An independent review by a Canadian law professor adds
another voice to the clamor calling for repeal of Sec. 13, the internet
hate speech provision of the Canadian Human Rights Act. The federal law
makes it illegal to say anything "likely to expose an identifiable
group to hatred or contempt." Problems with this should be immediately
obvious.
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- The law is increasingly controversial since it's been
used to harass mainstream, public voices such as conservative writer and
Islam critic Mark Steyn. Law professor Richard Moon's independent review
of Sec. 13 won't do anything to quiet the controversy. "Censorship
of expression that stereotypes or defames the members of an identifiable
group is not a practical option and so we must, as a community, develop
other ways to respond to this expression," says Moon. The Canadian
National Post says "Section 13 has become a flashpoint for controversy,
and Prof. Moon's recommendation to repeal it is sure to invigorate a debate
about human rights law and free speech that has moved from the fringe to
mainstream in the last year."
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- Let's hope that debate blows south of the Canadian border.
With a new, pro-hate law President heading to the White House and pro-hate
law Democrats dominating Congress, we need every American voice raised
to save freedom of speech from the power-hungry thought police.
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- David Ahenakew is wrong: Jews are not a disease. But
freedom-devouring hate crime and speech laws, which activist Jews have
created, are a disease. These laws are a spiritual, intellectual, and legal
cancer that is metastasizing around the world. They will kill freedom here
-- if we don't speak out.
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