Geert Wilders: International Ban on "hate speech" laws needed

The following may be "old" news to some but this news NEVER gets old and is pertinent and deserves our attention daily. The information is exactly as it has come to me. If you notice the "hate speech" laws and/or resolutions passed in Western nations are 100% designed to revere Islam and to denegrate, fine, and perhaps imprison anyone who speaks out against the policies of "financial" Islam, "political" Islam, "terrorist" Islam (better known under Obama as "extremists" without the use of radical, fundamentalist, or Islamic or even the more universally agreed term, "Islamists" or God-forbid, radical Islamic terrorists. Keep in mind that for the likes of Rosie O'Donnell - who made her fame and fortune from the hard-earned money of the Christians in our country whom she calls "extremists." To the matter at hand, it is not "hate speech" laws we need but rather a BAN on all censorship under the guise of "hate speech" laws. The Islamist terrorists sworn to kill us or bring us into submission will follow no laws to curtail "hate speech" and will only use such laws to intimidate the rest of us. We need freedom of speech - worldwide. The following is a press release from the Center for Security Policy about the Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilder and his film, Fitna. Friday, February 27, 2009 Geert Wilders: The World Needs an International First Amendment and a Ban on All 'Hate Speech' Laws; Keynotes Center-sponsored Press Conference FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, contact Lee Cohen lcohen@securefreedom.org Washington, DC: Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders, founder and floor leader of the Freedom Party (PVV), and member of the Board of Advisors of the International Free Press Society (IFPS), recounted today before a packed audience in Washington's National Press Club the recent, alarming attacks on free speech worldwide - including legal actions and death threats to which he and other political leaders and journalists have lately been exposed. Notably, Mr Wilders is being prosecuted in his own county because of reaction to his film "Fitna," and his remarks challenging the contention that Islam is a "religion of peace." Attendees at the press conference co-sponsored by the Center for Security Policy and the International Free Press Society had an opportunity to view "Fitna" in its entirety and to engage in a lively question and answer session with Mr. Wilders. The film features quotations from the Koran, documentary footage of Islamic leaders inciting violence (jihad) based on those quotations, and documentary footage of the results: deaths of innocent civilians and destruction of property in various Western nations. [I would also add that the film documents heinous treatment of women.] The film can be viewed here. here. Highlights of Mr. Wilders' remarks (a copy of his entire statement may obtained here and included the following:

The real question is: will free speech be put behind bars? And the larger question for the West is: will we leave Europe's children the values of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem, or the values of Mecca Teheran, and Gaza? Hate speech will always be used against the people defending the West-in order to please and appease Muslims. They can say whatever they want: throw gays from apartment buildings, kill the Jews, slaughter the infidel, destroy Israel, jihad against the West. Whatever their book tells them. ...My prosecution is a full-fledged attack by the Left on freedom of speech in order to please Muslims. I propose the withdrawal of all hate speech legislation in Europe....In Europe, we should defend freedom of speech like Americans do....Millions think liberty is precious. That democracy is better than Shariah....there is no stronger power than the force of free men fighting for the great cause of liberty.

In welcoming Mr. Wilders to America, Frank Gaffney, President of the Center for Security Policy, observed that the threats he faces are actually threats to all of us. They arise from the theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls "Shariah": Mr. Gaffney observed that:

The insinuation of Shariah legal codes and practices into Free World societies includes the effort to impose Shariah blasphemy, slander and libel laws in the West. According to Shariah, it is impermissible to engage in speech or writings that ‘defame' Islam or otherwise offend its followers. We must oppose all these efforts. [This means literally to even discuss Islam or any of the many parts of Islam and the adverse impact they have on our culture and our Western civilization. For us to even discuss Islam is offensive and therein lies the problem with "free speech." Islamists are working to END free speech throughout all Western cultures/nations.]

Diana West, the syndicated columnist and best-selling author who serves as Vice President of the International Free Press Society said: The ideal speech protections lie in the spirit of the American First Amendment. While Mr. Wilders would clearly live and breathe more easily with such speech protections, it is important for all of us who are here today to witness him speak to note, that even under existing legal constraints, governmental efforts to further... Lars Hedegaard, President of the International Free Press Society, introduced Wilders and outlined the IFPS 2009 campaign to ban hate speech laws and to work for an "International First Amendment." Mr. Hedegaard said:

The hate speech and blasphemy laws that are now common in many European countries lack clarity as to precisely what they aim to criminalize. Recent experience with their implementation further shows that they are unequally applied. This state of affairs is intolerable and the IFPS must therefore demand that all such laws be repealed. The way to deal with controversial, offensive or even hateful statements-unless they are directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action-is to expose them to public debate and criticism. [I would submit to you that the lack of clarity is precisely what the supporters of these laws want - chaos and confusion.]

A video of the entire press conference will be available shortly at the Center for Security Policy's website, here. In the News: Obama expected to set Iraq pullout for August 2010 India to construct aircraft carrier: Navy Progress in Baghdad continues on all fronts, Commander reports Obama announces more key defense appointments Iraqi army struggles to master logistics US-China resume military ties, top officer says Plans to close US airbase threaten military supply route to Afghanistan US ready to respond to N. Korea missile US, Pakistan and Afghanistan to hold regular talks Japan opposition's US military remarks draw criticism Pakistan officers helped plan Mumbai attack, India says Baghdad social scene gaining ground Zimbabwe seeks urgent African aid Clinton cautious about US-Syria dialogue Lebanon frees Hariri assassination suspects Thousands flee Ethiopian clashes Iraq withdrawal plans gain GOP support Commentary "Balancing Beijing" by Doug Bandow "Power plays in the Indian ocean" by Robert Kaplan "Obama proposes a European US" by Charles Krauthammer "Arms control's dangerous allure" by John Bolton here Recent Center Publications Frank Gaffney's weekly Decision Briefs The Occasional Papers Series Center for Security Policy's 2007-2008 National Security Scorecard The latest Americas Report ~~~~~~ With the exception of one or two designated comments such as the one that follows, this entire post comes from the Center for Security. If you are interested in their briefings, you may go to their website and link to receive news letters, briefings, and such other material that will help keep you informed. There have been two waves where Islamic leaders have crested the waves and driven their people and their Sharia Law upon the shores and into the heartland of Western Civilization. We are now living through the third such assault. The ground has been tilled and we have been softened up by our own far-left and the morons pounding the drum for "political correctness" in speech and behavior of Western civilized man. This "political correctness" which seems to have its early roots in nineteenth century Russia is but censorship. "Political correctness" is a soft term for censorship and for guarding your words. Hush, hush... Can't speak the truth. Can't even discuss contraversial ideologies. And you certainly CANNOT produce a film using actual quotations from a Qur'an and actual video footage of the most heinous acts being commited upon Muslim women. All laws, national and international, that threaten free speech behind the banner of "hate speech" must be banned. Even dear Maxine Waters, that sterling example of elected leadership, threatened that LA would be burned to the ground if O.J. Simpson were convicted of killing Ron Goldman and nearly beheading Nicole Brown Simpson, the mother of his children. Congressman Waters spoke inciting citizens to riot, her words held the justice system hostage, and yet she remained free and at large to intimidate the citizens and to threaten not only their stores, there homes, but also their lives. Her words were "hate speech" but "hate speech" laws are only designed to censor and intimidate people from speaking the truth and from having open discussions about the threats we face from those who really do want to kill us. Can anyone remember the screams of Nick Berg?

Obama rewards Gordon Brown for not showing Geert Wilders' Fitna

As I sometimes do, I get moving on a topic and then slip into a "stream of consciousness" thing and move from one topic to the next. I have done so recently in the post, Obama supports Sharia Law for US? which was based upon a post, Farewell to Britain, by Frank Gaffney, Jr of the Center for Security. My post focused on AIG and Citigroup being run along the lines of Sharia Finance or "financial Islam". This led me to Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch which led me to the 15 minute film by Geert Wilders, Fitna. Americans are being warned upside down and backwards of the threat Islam poses to our way of life. We are not listening. Obama is proving his desire and goal to destroy capitalism and our free market capitalist system. How are your retirement savings holding up? Britain is gone; Islam has taken over, if not the pomp and circumstance, then that is only a matter of time. Thanks to the EU, Europe - once Western allies - is being overrun by Muslims, many of whom are "extremist" in the words of Obama where the term Islamic terrorist is not to be heard. In the US, we are seeing "honor" killings; an elementary school in California has the children dress up as Muslims and practice being Muslims for a day, a week, or a month. The ideas of "racism" and "political correctness" are so embued into our mindset now that real, meaningful discourse of the very real threats facing us straight on like us looking down the barrel of a loaded shotgun are impossible to have. Actually the only "racism" and "attacks against religion" that can be engaged in within the United States but cannot be openly acknowledged are the racist attacks against white men specifically and white people generally and the open attacks against Christianity and Judaism. Mention "Islam" and the House Resolution against speaking about Islam is waiting to be shifted over to a "law" but Christianity and Judaism are fair-game and actually "scapegoats". If you are brave, PLEASE see/watch the video, Fitna by Geert Wilders. It is not a pretty sight but it shows the horrors of Islamic terrorism toward the West and as importantly the Islamic domestic terrorism toward the women of Islam; may God bless the Muslim women who fall before the wrath of uncontrollable cruelty at the hands of Sharia Law ordered and excused in accordance with the dictates of ...... For a list of the Obama administration's activities just for the first 50 days, see the excellent list at Gateway Pundit: Obama Disaster: 50 days that changed the world. I have linked one other post to Gateway Pundit's list because I believe they pertain to the work Obama's administration is doing. Also, I believe - while working to dismantle our free enterprise and free market capitalism way of life, I believe much of the activity is a distraction to keep us from connecting the dots to Obama's underlying agenda which certainly cannot be voiced or even speculated about. Make no mistake that one of the main agendas is to make the American people more and more dependent upon government. Remember, we the people created the government and it is there to serve us, not enslave us.

Obama supports Sharia Law for US?

Frank Gaffney, Jr. has an interesting article posted at the Center for Security. The post, Farewell to Britain, seems at first glance to be about the slights Obama gave to PM Brown of England, the Islamic Republic of the British Isles. But here is the entire text - highlights added (comments in blue are mine and cannot be attributed to Mr. Gaffney, Jr.) - in which you will see that Britain is really paving the way for Muslims to establish their own "government" easily within Britain and into our nation, as well as globally and, overtime, erode our institutions - the ones left standing by Obama - and convert us to Sharia Law. Please note, this conversion does not and will not be done by virtue of numerial size, it will be slipped into our laws and our way of life in bits and pieces so that you will hardly notice: no deductions for contributions to your church or synagogue; not deductions for the interest you pay on home mortgages. These changes will naturally turn out to be "taxes". One primary example is the non-deduction for charitable giving even to our Christian churches which is "very" Islamic of Obama and effectually taxes us for our church affiliation. Islam can pass muster because it does not accept the "separation of church and state." Islam is the "state" which in our society means it cannot be the "church" in our naive definition. As I mention farther along, the "separation of church and state" - church teachings and state or civil law (although formerly based on the morals and principles of our Judeo-Christian heritage) were separate. We do not speak of church in the United States as "financial Christianity", "spiritual Christianity", "political Christianity" (although the far-left has labeled us with that nomenclature), and "classes of citizenship", let's call it "domestic violence" Christianity in which women generally are beaten and are second class property. But Islam - which we are to revere and of which we cannot speak - has all of those various identifiers: "spiritual Islam", "financial Islam", "political Islam", etc as though each segment is a "stand-alone" separate and distinct part of the "ideology" of Islam - the "religion of peace". Islam is not compatible with our US Constitution and is not a "religion" so if any group should have their "church" designation of a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 status removed it is "financial, political, spiritual" Islam. Islam is a "cradle-to-grave" ideology which is stringent and demands total obedience to the dictates of the Mullahs. Now, back to Britain... It is only fair to point out that Britain is already an Islamic "nation" and, it is my understanding that England - our once honored ally - is now the haven for the main terrorist planning and freedom of expression across the world. We have more to be cautious of coming out of England in the form of "terrorists" than probably any other "friendly" nation. I could be incorrect here, of course. From Mr. Frank Gaffney, Jr.:

Farewell to Britain Center for Security Policy | Mar 09, 2009 By Frank Gaffney, Jr. London: The British are understandably mystified. Long accustomed to a "special relationship" with the United States, they are trying to figure out why the latter's likeable new president would be going to such lengths to distance himself from the country that has for generations been America's closest ally. [May I humbly suggest that Obama is only showing his support for his Islamic backers in the Middle East.] First, there was Barack Obama's decision to return the Churchill bust that had graced the Oval Office since then-Prime Minister Tony Blair gave it to George W. Bush as a post-9/11 gesture of solidarity. Then, there were the successive affronts during the visit by Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, to Washington last week: A seemingly thoughtless official gift (a set of DVDs of popular American films); a painfully chilly and brief press availability before the start of the two men's private meeting; and no formal joint press conference of the kind Bush afforded Blair on all but one of numerous visits to Washington (the exception a hastily arranged trip right after the September 11 attacks). The British press has offered several face-saving explanations for these serial rudenesses. Perhaps Obama is "exhausted." Alternatively, he is simply "focused elsewhere" in the midst of cratering capital markets, collapsing automakers and skyrocketing unemployment. The real answer, however, was supplied by an unnamed State Department official whom London's Sunday Telegraph reported on March 8th "reacted with fury" when asked by the paper why the Brown visit was so, er, "low-key." According to the Telegraph: "The official dismissed any notion of the special relationship. ‘There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment.'" [Obama's State Department working on building coalitions, eh?] Such a comment by a representative of the State Department - an institution that never saw a foreign government it wanted to offend - is a sign of how serious Team Obama is about "resetting" the U.S.-U.K. relationship. Of course, as that term applies to friendly Britain, it means something very different than when used to describe the administration's desire for improved ties with America's enemies, actual or potential, like Russia, Iran and "Palestine." (Consider, for example, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's tendering to her Russian counterpart a symbolic "Reset" button - one whose label, incredibly, used instead the Russians' word for "overload." This unserious conduct in the face of the Kremlin's increasing aggressiveness at America's expense constituted the most appalling and degrading public spectacle by the top U.S. diplomat since her husband's appointee, Madeleine Albright, danced with North Korean despot Kim Jong Il in 2000.) Arguably, the need for a special relationship with Great Britain rooted in shared Western values and a mutual commitment to the common defense is as great today as at anytime since World War II. Unfortunately, Gordon Brown's government is conducting itself in ways that undermine those values and jeopardize the security of the Free World. Particularly worrying are British concessions to the repressive and seditious theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls "Shariah": Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF): Even though promoters of this industry, like "Shariah advisor" and al-Jazeera host Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, have described SCF as "financial jihad" and al Qaeda has publicly embraced its practice, Mr. Brown has declared he wants Britain to be the world capital of Shariah finance. [Can anyone say, "Moron!"] Shariah courts: Brown's government has begun institutionalizing the practice of separate legal systems for Muslims with the proliferation of "family law" courts where women can be treated, in accordance with Shariah, as second-class citizens - less-than-equal to male Muslims and entitled to a fraction of the property due the latter in the adjudication of divorce or testate matters. [But when it comes to welfare, a Muslim man in England can have 4 wives plus children and get welfare money for them at tax payer expense.] Terrorism charities: The British government has refused to take punitive action against British-based Islamic "charities" that provide money to terrorist organizations. The latest is Interpal, a Palestinian organization that even the BBC was able to figure out provides support to Hamas. Engaging with terrorists: British civil servants are paying thousands of dollars to attend a conference next month on "Political Islam" at which Ibrahim Moussawi has been invited to speak. Moussawi is a top propagandist for Hezbollah. The same Brown government that prevented Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders from presenting his film "Fitna" to the House of Lords on the grounds that he constituted too much of a threat to "community harmony" is evidently untroubled by having a flak for terrorists inciting in the U.K. The irony of the evident distancing from Britain by the Obama administration is that Brown's government is pursuing policies that Barack Obama seemingly espouses. The U.S. taxpayer now owns most of AIG and Citigroup, two companies massively engaged in Shariah-compliant transactions, at odds with our constitutional separation of church and state. [Now, it is clear why we are bailing out AIG and Citigroup - Islam. Do you think if either were overtly owned by Baptists we would have bailed them out?] In this and other ways, Mr. Obama is effectively acquiescing to Islamists' demands to establish here as in the U.K. their own, "parallel" society observing Shariah rules, not the laws of the land. Among the concessions in the works appears to be bans on so-called "hate speech" that defames Islam, an idea implicit in the President's injunction to use "respectful language" towards Muslims. Last week, moreover, Hillary Clinton effectively promised a whopping $900 million charitable contribution from the U.S. taxpayer to Hamas - or at least a future Hamas-Fatah "unity" government. This is a part of the President's determination to reset Mideast diplomacy by forging what might be called "special relationships" not only with Syria and Iran but the major terrorist organizations they sponsor, Hamas and Hezbollah. As the Free World increasingly engages in submission to Shariah, it appears the special U.S. tie to the U.K. that served to block the global ambitions of successive totalitarian ideologies will no longer operate. Under President Obama, the question increasingly is: Will the U.S. perform that vital role alone, or succumb as Britain is doing to what Islam scholar Robert Spencer calls the "Stealth Jihad" now being mounted against every freedom-loving country?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is the President of the Center for Security Policy and a columnist for the Washington Times. The items in "blue" were my comments. Yes, we are submitting to "financial Islam", "political Islam", "terrorist Islam" and now even speaking about Islam will be considered "hate speech". Very Islamic of our new president, Mr. Obama. But then, Obama is Muslim by birth and perhaps owes his "presidency" to his backers in the Middle East - just another lobbying group he has to reward. It could be argued that Mr. Obama did not snub PM Gordon Brown but rather gave him a "wink and a nod" for the good work Brown is doing submitting to Islam. But now we know why our tax dollars are bailing out AIG and Citigroup...Shariah Law, the financial laws of Islam. The "Stealth Jihad" according to Robert Spencer. Is there any wonder that our retirement plans are "in the tank?" In case you missed the film by Geert Wilder, here is Fitna.... You recall that Geert Wilders was not allowed to show this true 15 minute film to the British Parliament. Obama did not snub Gordon Brown; he rewarded him. How? The irony of giving Brown a set of DVDs - films... In 2007 there were 54,000,000 (million) Muslims throughout the European West. That is nearly the total population of France. And what are we importing into the United States: drug cartels/armies; Islamic terrorists who hid within Muslim communities... There is no "race" in Islam, it is a political ideology such as Marxism but less benign. Total domination of the world is the goal and the total eradication of Western Culture and Capitalism is the goal. For a list of the Obama administration's activities just for the first 50 days, see the excellent list at Gateway Pundit: Obama Disaster: 50 days that changed the world.