The international establishment media wants you to know that Edwin Wagensveld is “far right.” there is virtually no mention of him that doesn’t include this Homeric epithet, so that all Right-Thinking People, that is, those who are still credulous enough to believe the media, will know that this is a man to be shunned and ignored. Yet it is Wagensveld and others like him who are smeared as “far right” who are standing between ordinary citizens and one of the left’s most sinister agendas: the destruction of the freedom of speech.
Going even farther than most of its establishment media colleagues, Morocco World News recently called Wagensveld, a Dutch human rights activist, a “far-right Dutch extremist.” He deserved the double whammy of media smear terms because last Sunday he once again tore a copy of the Qur’an, in what Morocco World News called “a new provocative Islamophobic act,” in front of Turkey’s embassy in the Netherlands.
This was just one of many recent instances of desecration of the Qur’an, most of which have taken place in Denmark and Sweden. Several Islamic states are using them to attempt once again to intimidate the West into abandoning the freedom of expression and adopting Sharia blasphemy laws. This time, given the Left’s notable hatred for the freedom of speech, it just might work.
Not content with smearing Wagensveld, Morocco World News added the claim that his act “stirred outrage and frustration from many Muslim communities, who have repeatedly called on the international community to intervene to end such provocative acts.” Ever helpful, Turkey’s Daily Sabah chimed in on the same day that “in a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Ankara condemns the spread of these ‘provocative attacks,’ which are allowed to be carried out in European countries under the guise of freedom of expression.”
Ominously, the Foreign Ministry stated that “the countries where such attacks have taken place must now take effective measures against these provocations, which are recognized by the United Nations as acts of religious hatred and violations of international law.”
Meanwhile, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry issued a statement of its own, condemning these “irresponsible acts that provoke the feelings of two billion Muslims around the world, fuel hatred and threaten peaceful coexistence.” It added that religious symbols must be respected, and that this was a “collective responsibility that everyone must adhere to.”
This initiative has been building for a long time. In response to an earlier act of Qur’an desecration, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry declared, “This senseless and provocative Islamophobic act hurts the religious sensitivities of over 1.5 billion Muslims around the world.” It insisted that such acts were “not covered under any legitimate expression of the right to freedom of expression or opinion, which carries responsibilities under international human rights law, such as the obligation not to carry out hate speech and incite people to violence.”
Not to be outdone, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said that Europe invokes the freedom of speech in order to “allow extremist and radical elements to spread hatred against Islamic sanctities and values.” He said that the burning was a “clear example of spreading hatred and fueling violence against Muslims” and had “nothing to do with freedom of speech and thought.”
These furious denunciations demonstrate a superficial (at best) understanding of the freedom of speech, but as they come from Muslim countries, that’s understandable. Less forgivable was a recent statement of the High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, Miguel Angel Moratinos. His office said, “While the High Representative stresses the importance of upholding the freedom of expression as a fundamental human right, he also emphasises that the act of Quran-burning, amounts to an expression of hatred towards Muslims. It is disrespectful and insulting to the adherents of Islam and should not be conflated with freedom of expression.”
The words of the High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilizations were clear: he does not really believe in the freedom of expression as a fundamental human right at all. He believes that when someone threatens to kill you over your expression, you should adopt a respectful silence. In other words, he wants the West to submit to Sharia blasphemy restrictions.
Related: Free Speech Crisis: 3/4 Democrats, Half of Republicans Approve Gov’t Targeting Online ‘Hate’
Moratinos and others issued these condemnations in the first place because of jihad violence. That’s the only reason. If someone burned a Bible, would the act make any headlines at all? No. Would any ambassadors be summoned? No. Would the High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilizations start huffing and puffing about how the burning of the Bible was “disrespectful and insulting to the adherents of Christianity”? No.
What’s the difference? If you burn a Bible, Christians won’t kill you. If you burn a Qur’an, some Muslims will want very much to kill you. If you give in to them and curtail your activities accordingly, you’ll end up encouraging more such violent intimidation. That’s why Miguel Angel Moratinos deserves the condemnation of all free people.
That’s also why PJ Media, which has also been smeared as “far right,” is so much needed. If you become a PJ Media VIP member now, you’ll get the straight truth about the key issues of the day, free from establishment media propaganda and obfuscation. If you join VIP here, you’ll get 50% off your annual membership with the code SAVEAMERICA. That’s an incredible bargain for all you’ll get to equip yourself to stand against the lies that we’re inundated with everywhere.
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