Freedom of Speech?
Random House has
declined to publish a novel by writer, Sherry Jones. It was called The Jewel of Medina. It was about Mohammed's child bride, Aisha. In a cowardly act of self-censorship, Random House dumped the novel after word got around to Muslim websites.
Random House said yesterday that it had been advised by a number of Islamic scholars and security experts that the novel was offensive to Muslims and that "it could incide acts of violence by a small radical segment".
There they area again, that "small radical segment", making all of those fabled moderate Muslims seem like they're nothing but a bunch of demented barbaric savages. I'm not sure it was something I would have read, well actually, I'm sure I would have ignored it.
The novel is a luridly written amalgam of bodice-ripper and historical fiction centred on Aisha, the favourite wife of the prophet Muhammad. "Married at nine to the much-older Muhammad, Aisha uses her wits, her courage, and her sword to defend her first-wife status even as Muhammad marries again and again, taking 12 wives and concubines in all," the summary reads.
At one point the novel imagines the consummation of the marriage between Muhammad and Aisha: "The pain of consummation soon melted away. Muhammad was so gentle. I hardly felt the scorpion's sting. To be in his arms, skin to skin, was the bliss I had longed for all my life."
But,
"It was my hope that my book would develop empathy for this other culture," she said. "It has always rankled me the way history focuses on men and wars and men's politics and leaves women out. I wanted to honour the women in Muhammad's life by giving them a voice."
That was her first mistake, trying to give Muslim women a voice. Muslim men have have kept that impulse under control for 1300 years. Women are not to be honored, they're to be used . . . by men. That doesn't mean the book should be censored. Unfortunately, having given up all of our beliefs, we become slaves to anyone who does have strong beliefs and is willing to impose them on us. Who's going to battle the "small radical segment" on this one? Not Random House.
But Muslims aren't the only wants out to stifle freedom of speech. There is also a group calling themselves Accountable Americans.
Michelle Malkin has the skinny on these thugs. They call Republicans fascists, but they use strong arm, Mafia tactics to shut down contrasting political views.
I'd like to say that attacks on free speech are coming from all sides, but they're only coming from one, just different heads of the same tyrannical monster. If they ever do win against us, the leftist tools will be quickly dealt with by their Islamic masters.
Labels: Accountable America, books, censorship, islam, Random House
Of Course She Wants It Both Ways
This
editorial by Michael Coren needs no comment.
It's the age-old question that all young Canadian university students have to face as they enjoy their publicly funded years at college pretending to receive an education. How do we guarantee a woman's right to abort a Zionist?
The issue is particularly troubling to Gilary Massa, vice-president external of the York Federation of Students in Toronto. She and her friends have introduced a ban on all student organizations that oppose abortion and believe that life begins at conception.
"You have to recognize that a woman has a choice over her own body", said Comrade Massa, presumably hoping to graduate in Hilarious Cliche Studies. "We think that these pro-life, anti-choice groups, they're sexist in nature. Is this an issue of free speech? No, this is an issue of women's rights."
Idiocy aside, there are some problems here with what used to be known as good old hypocrisy. Just a few months ago the same young lady was one of the leaders of a campaign to allow the term "Israeli apartheid" to be used on Canadian campuses. Jewish students and the mass of their non-Jewish colleagues considered the phrase deeply offensive when applied to a democratic country founded by victims of international racism and genocide.
For the record, I don't think the term "Israeli apartheid" should be censored. Yes, it is offensive, stupid, and factually inaccurate, but it does tell us a lot about the idiot who uses it and tries to pass it off as the truth.
If Canadians (and I know this is not true of
all Canadians) want to live in a society where thoughts can be considered criminal, and thereby suppressed they are welcome to it, but they shouldn't be surprised if they end up on the wrong end of a thought crime lawsuit. At the very least, they will lose rights once considered sacred in a free society.
P.S. You can find more liberal fascist mental gymnastics from Gilary Massa
here.
The student government at York University yesterday voted unanimously to deny "resources, space, recognition or funding" to student clubs or individuals "whose primary or sole purpose" is to oppose abortion.
"Our summer quorum is eight [members], so we surpassed our quorum," said Gilary Massa, vice-president external of the York Federation of Students, who said she did not know how many people actually voted.
"The York Federation of Students respects and affirms a woman's right to choose," the policy reads. "No YFS resources, space, recognition or funding will be allocated to enhance groups or individuals whose primary or sole purpose is anti-choice activities. Such activities would be defined as any campaign, action, distribution, solicitation, lobbying efforts, etc., that seeks to limit the individual's right to choose what they can or cannot do with one's own body."
However,
She said the student body was outraged in March when a member of the Genocide Awareness Project -- a university -targeted poster campaign of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, a privately funded U. S. organization with a Canadian branch in Alberta -- came to campus for a debate hosted by the debating club. The ensuing controversy led to this policy, which Ms. Massa said is not a ban of antiabortion groups, but rather a "limitation of resources."
"They are able to conduct their activity, they just are not able to take advantage of the student union resources," she said.
She said the YFS has democratic processes in place to ensure application of the policy will be fair.
The scary part, of course, is that Massa is not and cannot do this alone. She has the support of the student government at York U. in her quest to destroy freedom in order to save it.
Labels: Canada, censorship, Gilary Massa, hypocrisy
CHALLAH AKBAR
