PJ Media

Ann

Our “free speech traditions” are being used to undermine (ultimately) our free speech traditions. Have you not noticed that within completely Islamic cultures, controlled by Islamic governments, individuals are allowed no freedom–of movement, of speech or any other kind. Are these the kind of people we want to give an opportunity of influence–using our “tradition of free speech”, perhaps just to prove how magnanimous we are about free speech?

Not all Muslim countries are as restrictive as say Saudi Arabia but I take your point that they are not generally very free places in terms of free speech. However I still don’t see that Ahmedinejad’s words and ideas are so seductive and appealing that the public needs to be banned from hearing them.

“Using your logic, I guess we will just continue to generously provide free speech opportunities until we have the same audio ambience here that is now avialable in many European cities: the Muslim publicly broadcast call to prayer, five times a day.”

Which cities would they be? Obviously in Muslim European countries like Albania and Bosnia or in Istanbul it is to be expected but i’ve never heard it anywhere else and i’ve been to dozens of European cities. Maybe there have been a couple of proposals (as there have been in the US – http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2008/09/video-minaret-blasts-islamic-call-to-prayer-in-boston.html) but the fact that you seem to think that it it common to hear the muezzin in European cities seems to me typical of the misinformation that the right-wing media propagates. It certainly isn’t common at all, I work in a city with one of the highest percentages of muslims in Europe and it doesn’t happen here so it is very unlikely to happen in most European cities where muslims are only 1-2% of the population.