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Promoting "British Values" by Curbing Free Speech
by Soeren Kern
• November 6, 2014 at 5:00 am
"Yes
we need to combat the Islamist threat, but this is not the way to do it....
You can't protect democracy by undermining its very foundations…. Freedom of
expression is an essential freedom for any democratic society." — Colin
Hart, Director, The Christian Institute.
"They
made us feel threatened about our religion. They asked, 'Do you have friends
from other religions?' They asked this many times until we answered what they
wanted us to say." — Eleventh grade student at a Jewish Orthodox school
for girls.
Trinity
Christian School, a small independent school in Reading, is being downgraded
and may even be closed for not inviting a Muslim imam to lead a chapel
service.
"Individuals
who criticize the spread of Islamic Sharia law in Britain could be deemed to
be racist and silenced…. Without precise legislative definitions, deciding
what [is extremism] is subjective and therefore open to abuse now or by any
future authoritarian government." — Keith Porteous Wood, Director,
National Secular Society.
The British government has unveiled a new proposal that would require
Islamic extremists to have their social media posts pre-approved by the
government.
The plan—which is aimed at curbing the spread of jihadist propaganda in
Britain—is part of a wide-ranging effort to strengthen the government's
counter-terrorism strategy ahead of general elections set for May 2015.
The new policy is so broad in scope, however, and the definition of
"extremist" is so all-encompassing, that the government could
ultimately silence anyone whose views are deemed to be politically incorrect,
according to free speech activists.
The so-called Extremism Disruption Orders (EDOs) would prohibit any
individual the government considers to be an "extremist" from
appearing on radio and television, protesting in public or even posting
messages on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, without permission.
Don't Tell Erdogan Jihadists Kill People
by Burak Bekdil
• November 6, 2014 at 4:00 am
It was
vintage Erdogan: There is no Islamic terror. ISIS is not an Islamic
organization and its name is not even ISIS.
Slightly more than a year ago, the world was shocked at the dramatic
death tolls in Kenya and Pakistan when jihadists, in separate attacks over
one weekend, killed more than 150 innocent people -- with the Kenya attack
claiming victims aged between two and 78. In a public speech after the
"black weekend," Turkey's then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
(now President) looked very sad. Indeed, he was sad.
But not for the victims of terror attacks the previous weekend. He was
mourning Asmaa al-Beltagi, a poor, 17-year-old Egyptian girl who had been
shot dead by security forces in Cairo as she was protesting the ouster of
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, in a July coup d'état.
Asmaa's father was a senior Brotherhood figure and after her death, Erdogan
once even shed tears during a televised speech. He then commemorated the girl
at almost every election rally.
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Thursday, November 6, 2014
Promoting "British Values" by Curbing Free Speech
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