October 13, 2006

10 Years Ago, Who Would Have Believed the French Would Give Up Their Own Free Speech?

A month or two ago a good friend of mine asked, quite reasonably, if I was concerned that we might lose our free speech in America due to Islam. I said, not tomorrow, but in 20-30 years, yes, I was concerned that that might happen.

Who would have thought even 10 years ago that free speech could be lost in France, that most impertinent of nations? And yet, here it is, astoundingly. The French writer, Redeker, said some things about Islam that the Muslims didn't like; a number of Muslims threatened to kill him; he's on the run; and the French establishment, and even Le Monde, acquiesces. The government and people of France are letting it happen, when they should be tracking down those who made the threats and punishing them with years of imprisonment, or expulsion from France.

At this point free speech in France appears to be dead, killed by radical Islam.

Islam, as apparently interpreted currently by most Muslim leaders, says that non-Muslims are second-class citizens who have to "stay within their limits." Islam exploits an odd weakness in the Judeo-Christian tradition that is vulnerable to attack when the attackers claim that they are acting in the name of their own "religion."

Of course, Islam, as interpreted by today's Islamic leaders, isn't a religion at all in the Judeo-Christian sense. It doesn't teach love of one's neighbor, or of one's country - or even of one's family, as is seen when radical Islamists send their own children off to blow themselves up, or when they do so-called "honor killings" of their own children for violating Islamic rules.

It all sounds as strange as science fiction. But here's a report from Nidra Poller, containing the undeniable facts about what's happening in France.

This is what we must stop from happening here.