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Soft Jihad: the next phase

March 16, 2008 - 5:52 am - by Roger Kimball
Doug
2008-03-17 15:59:46

If it is Free Speech to denigrate Mohammed and the Muslim religion, why shouldn’t it be Free Speech to question details of the Jewish Holocaust?

David Irving was imprisoned for a year for stating that the gas chamber shown to tourists at Auschwitz was built after the war. He made this statement about a year before the Polish government itself admitted that the gas chamber at Auschwitz is a fake and that they built it themselves.

Others are jailed for doing simple math. When WWII ended the claim was that 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. Of that 6 million, 4 million were killed at Auschwitz. Now Auschwitz claims less than 1.5 million people killed, but the official figure of 6 million is still considered sacrosanct. Anyone who hasn’t failed basic math knows that if 4 – X = 1.5, then 6 – X = 3.5, not 6.

If the religion of the Israelis cannot be questioned or denigrated, why cannot Muslims expect the same consideration for their religion? If the West truly believes in Freedom of Speech, why are people being put in jail for questioning details of the Holocaust?