Wrong fears
Mar 23, 2008 Oppression
NETWORK SOLUTIONS SHUTS DOWN A WEBSITE under Islamist pressure. I’m guessing they wouldn’t respond to complaints from Baptists quite so readily.
UPDATE: Reader Antoinette Aubert emails: “Baptists don’t blow people up for disagreeing with them. Heck Baptists don’t even sue you for disagreeing with them. Thus does multi-culturalism make cowards of us all.” Or encourage violence and litigation.
I think Glenn — law professor, right? — just just nipped a piece of the truth on the way out there. The issue is not, really, having your server blown up. In fact, this is not a realistic risk in the vast majority of cases. That risk — and the ability of Muslim extremists to carry out the threatened violence — was overstated in the past, even though the fear of it was very real.
But litigation? Political pressure? Boycotting? Political correctness police? That is what Network Solutions is really afraid of. And for a major company to bow to that — not, in contrast, taking reasonable precautions to real threats of bloodshed — is where cowardice is, indeed, the appropriate term to use.
UPDATE: Here’s the pic.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Although Geert Wilders appears to be anti-fascist (he calls the Koran a ‘fascist document’, which, if the Koran is used as a foundation for a legal system, would be accurate), recent events have made me uncomfortable with the ‘anti-immigration’ movement in Europe.
Also, claiming that the political problems we’re having with terrorism are related to “Islam” is like claiming that mob violence is related to “Italian culture”. Yes, terrorist groups are inspired and recruited through their connection to Islam, but ‘reforming’ the culture will have no effect on the political use of this organization and its tactics.
That said, American laws and culture pretty much demand that, although we may disagree with what Wilders has say, we should fight to the death to protect his right to say it.”
Every media outlet and every internet site should, (and if we value our freedoms, must) publish Wilder’s work, simultaneously if possible. People who make death threats against him are breaking our laws and should be punished for doing so. United we stand…
That’s what we should have done during the Rushdie controversy, it’s what we should have done when Hirsi Ali and Theo Van Gogh released his film, it’s what every media outlet should have done during the Danish Cartoon controversy.
However, while we’re noting media cowardice, we should also note that Western governments, including our own, made no attempt to punish the people who were making death threats, or the issuers of anti-free speech fatwas. If our government isn’t willing to defend our rights, it’s not clear why we’re paying their salaries.