June 4, 2008
A freedom we can't surrender
Editorial
The Vancouver Province
One of the great freedoms we enjoy in a country like Canada is the right to express our views without being punished by the state. It is not an absolute right. For example, we do not have the right to libel others or incite violence against them.
But one of the hallmarks of a healthy democracy is that citizens have the greatest possible latitude to have their say, right or wrong. That is why we view with deep concern the continuing threat to freedom of expression posed by so-called human-rights tribunals in Canada.
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, for example, now is holding a hearing into complaints made against Maclean's magazine and journalist Mark Steyn about a 2006 article titled "The Future Belongs to Islam."
Excerpted from Steyn's book, America Alone, the article discusses what the author believes is the danger to western civilization from the spread of Islam and Islamic terrorism in the western world.
Complainants Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, and Abbotsford doctor Naiyer Habib, the congress's B.C. director, say the article violates a section of the B.C. Human Rights Code.
That section bars the publication of anything likely to expose a person or a group to hatred or contempt. And as Province reporter Lora Grindlay noted yesterday, their lawyer told the tribunal the case was about the national media "consistently denigrating Muslim Canadians."
However, other Canadians, including Muslim leaders like Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan, members of the Muslim Canadian Congress, disagree.
In fact, they disagree with both Steyn and Elmasry and Habib. They acknowledge Steyn is right to "raise the alarm against the rise of religious extremism." But they say he is wrong to ignore the fact that "both in Canada and abroad, it is Muslims who have stood up to jihadi goons to defend liberal values."
The key point Fatah and Hassan make is that, right or wrong, Steyn has the right in Canada to express his views, even if they are offensive to some. By trying to censor him, they say, the Canadian Islamic Congress only proves him right -- about the threat to western civilization posed by the Muslim world.
The way to prove Steyn wrong, in other words, is to defend his right to free expression, not haul him up before some modern-day Star Chamber
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Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
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Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
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MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
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Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
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Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
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MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
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German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
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