OIC Blames Extremist Free Speech for Islamophobia
Soeren Kern, in "OIC Blames Free Speech for 'Islamophobia' in West" (Gatestone Institute, December 11, 2013), informs us of the OIC's goal of limiting free speech about Islam, so I decided to look at the Sixth OIC Observatory Report on Islamophobia (October 2012 - September 2013) to see for myself what it says about free expression:
[T]he worldwide provocation caused by the publication of the nefarious caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by a Danish cartoonist in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper on September 30, 2005. This irresponsible act of abusing freedom of expression by a single individual that was among the first of many that were to follow in humiliating and negatively stereotyping Muslims, effectively contributed towards developing a culture of intolerance of Islam and Muslims in the West. (1)I'm glad that's set straight. I had erroneously imagined that the worldwide rioting of Islamists over the Muhammad cartoons bore more responsibility for the negative image of Islam. Even worse:
[T]he perpetuation of Islamophobia, both in terms of the phenomenon's momentum and outreach, is disquieting. It is particularly alarming that what had initially started as mere exploitation and abuse of freedom of expression by some extremist elements, gradually found resonance in political spheres, ultimately leading to the institutionalization of Islamophobia. (1)I had attributed the politicization of this issue to Islamist violence. How wrong I was!
[We OIC] Member States . . . strongly convey our grave concerns on growing Islamophobia to our western counterparts within the ambit of their bilateral consultations and to impress upon them that the sanctity of freedom of expression and freedom of religion cannot be allowed to be endangered by those few radical extremists who are determined to create unrest and divisions in our present day world of diversity by giving them a free hand in fomenting Islamophobia. (2)The radical extremists are not the Islamists, but those who resort to freedom of expression! I didn't know that! Here's more about those extremists who so freely express their radical views on Islam:
The outcry against these extreme radicals may be universal but little could be done to contain them as they enjoy a free hand in inciting intolerance of Islam and Muslims under the pretext of freedom of expression. (7)I hadn't realized that free expression was so dreadful -- not that the OIC or Muslims are actually against this dreadful practice in which people speak their minds:
Many distorted facts and ill conceived ideas about Islam continue to be accepted and justified despite the clear danger they represent in societies. These include the perception that Islam is linked to terror; that it is intolerant of other religious beliefs, that its values and practices are incompatible with modern democratic systems; that it favours repression of freedom of expression and undermining human rights and other misperceptions. (33)The opinion that Islam favors repression of freedom of expression is wholly wrong! Freedom of expression is fine so long as it's not used to say anything negative about Islam. For instance, you wouldn't want to resort to free expression to link Islam to violence, though you might have been allowed to link Islamism to violence if the spelling weren't so close as to make people think of Islam, so just refer to those many violent misunderstanders of the Religion of Peace as "radical extremists," "insurgents," or even "youths," depending on the context.
You wouldn't want to lose your head over something as minor as the sanctity of free expression . . .
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 5:12 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Just like the undisciplined child, nothing is ever their fault, but the actions and overzealousness of others. Jeesh!!
As for this one example - In Oklahoma, a student was suspended after wearing a hijab, or headscarf, at school on
September 11, although she had worn it for weeks before. - I remember that incident well and truth be told, the girl got tons of support while the school was "taken to the woodshed" in mulitiple layers of social media sites.
I could not read the entire manifesto, but I have to hand it to the OIC, they know their audience and how to slant things to show islamophobia is solely caused by outside entities versus any Islamic/Islamist actions!
Jay
There's no point in trying to read the entire OIC report. Basically, the OIC wants to restrict people from saying anything negative about Islam. That's all we really need to know about this report.
Jeffery Hodges
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Nice work, Jeffery. This would make a neat short piece for Emanations.
Might also serve as a thematic point of departure in a short story--perhaps the proceedings of a university committee asked to censure a professor who has said "insensitive, inappropriate and hurtful" things during a lecture... say during a lecture in which the professor said critical things about Attila the Hun... or Charles I... or Ottoman actions during the Armenian Genocide... or the Aztec's treatment of their conquered enemies.
What is the current status of that filmmaker they scapegoated for Benghazi?
According to Wikipedia, the filmmaker (Mark Basseley Youssef, formerly known as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula) had an interesting past. Still, film-making is not a crime.
Current status:
"In August 2013, Nakoula was released from prison to serve his remaining sentence in a halfway house, and then to be on probation for the next four years. On September 26, 2013, Nakoula was released from the halfway house to the custody of Pastor Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California."
Thanks, Carter, maybe we can put it in Emanations, as you suggest.
Jeffery Hodges
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Standup-comedian-turned-anti-Islamist-firebrand Pat Condell tweeted on the same topic here.
Thanks, Kevin, that was funny!
Jeffery Hodges
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I rather think it is, I dunno, all the drone bombing weddings and military contractor rapes and western back anti-democratic that make them hate us and fuel terrorism. But that would mean we would be at fault for empowering anti-western extremists and that would mean we would have to confess guilt, and we can't feel guilt when we are murdering hundreds of thousands of people, can we?
As you say, you "dunno" the reason, but it must be the fault of infidels.
Thus explaining why Islamists attack infidel Nigerians, South Sudanians, Coptic Egyptians, India's Hindus, Thailand's Buddhists, the Philippines' Catholics, and any other groups that don't qualify as true believers . . .
Jeffery Hodges
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