by Tina Grazier
Tehran, Iran – Authorities have shut down a Tehran newspaper ,the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday, after the paper published a story critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s stance on Israel.
The American people are quite used to news coming out of countries like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and others where dictators rule with an iron fist denying a free press and punishing citizens who dare speak out against them but Im somewhat amazed that we havent witnessed more concern about whats happening to an extremely popular journalist and writer right next door in Canada:
The End of Free Speech-Canadian Case An Omen For America DNRonline.com
A frightening hate crimes trial in Canada offers Americans a look at the future of the First Amendment if Muslim immigration to this country continues unabated. Conservative writer Mark Steyn, it seems, offended the Muslims *in British Columbia, and now not only the Muslims but also the Canadian diversity police want their pound of flesh. ** Steyns ongoing legal battle began in 2006, when Macleans magazine published an excerpt of his book, America Alone. The excerpt, The Future Belongs To Islam said nothing that anyone who reads the newspapers doesnt know: Islam is conquering Europe. But it was offensive because it stated exactly that. ** Europe, Mr. Steyn wrote, is dying. The Christian faith is waning. Birth rates have collapsed. His reasonable conclusion is that the growing and angry Islamic horde in Europe is preparing the ground for violence, and, indeed, jihad: Aging Europeans, he wrote, are being supplanted remorselessly by a young Muslim demographic. [A]t the very minimum, this fast-moving demographic transformation provides a huge comfort zone for the jihad to move around in. ** Thus did the Canadian Islamic Congress sharpen its legal scimitars and haul Steyn and Macleans before British Columbias human rights commission, a Stalinist kangaroo court that stops normal Canadians from expressing opinions the radical left does not like.
Maybe the reason people are inclined toward apathy is that an informed public willing to speak up brings the extremist element out of the shadows and into the light where it can become a more easily identified formadable force and where the evil they are perpetrating in the world is recognized. But awareness also makes choosing inevitabile. One must stand and fight, attempt to discredit those who do, or simply remain in apathy until such time that evil is overcome or overtakes and consumes. The Jews and many Germans too often chose apathy or allegiance to discredit those who would fight. Free Speech is one of many grand targetsa big prize for enemies at the gate.
Some of you might remember Mr. Steyn. I have featured some of his articles here on Post Scripts as well as the best selling book that has spawned this attack on free speech. Mr. Steyn has chosen to fight. In a similar circumstance what would your choice be?