April 02, 2008

This Isn’t Freedom of Speech - It’s Freedom to Incite Murder

From Islam Watch via Fox News:

A report posted on Islam Watch, a site run by Muslims who oppose intolerant teachings and hatred for unbelievers, exposes a prominent Islamic cleric and lawyer who support extreme punishment for non-Muslims — including killing and rape.

A question-and-answer session with Imam Abdul Makin in an East London mosque asks why Allah would tell Muslims to kill and rape innocent non-Muslims, including their wives and daughters, according to Islam Watch.

"Because non-Muslims are never innocent, they are guilty of denying Allah and his prophet," the Imam says, according to the report. "If you don't believe me, here is the legal authority, the top Muslim lawyer of Britain."

The lawyer, Anjem Choudary, backs up the Imam's position, saying that all Muslims are innocent.

Click here to watch the interview with Islamic lawyer Anjem Choudary.

"You are innocent if you are a Muslim," Choudary tells the BBC. "Then you are innocent in the eyes of God. If you are not a Muslim, then you are guilty of not believing in God."

Choudary said he would not condemn a Muslim for any action.

"As a Muslim, I must support my Muslim brothers and sisters," Choudary said. "I must have hatred to everything that is not Muslim."

Click here to read the report from Islam Watch. 

This cleric isn't in some Islamic nation. He's in an East London mosque, preaching specifically for the killing and rape of his non-Muslim fellow Brits.

Permitting him to continue isn't permitting freedom of speech - it's permitting a very small subset of freedom of speech, specifically, freedom to incite murder of non-Muslims.

If it's easy to accept the rule against shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, it should be easy to pass a law saying that it's illegal to call for people to kill those who aren't part of one's own organization - in this case, the organization of radical Islamists.