Thursday, April 25, 2019

Free Speech in Denmark

by Judith Bergman • April 25, 2019 at 6:00 am

What is shocking is that a state agency has threatened to remove a foster child from her only family, not because there is the slightest suspicion of ill-treatment of the child, but because of the foster mother's exercising her freedom of speech.
"If people start to change their legal, democratic statements because somebody wants to hurt them or try to kill them, well, then we don't have a democracy anymore. So, I am not at fault whatsoever that there is a threat to my person... We do not believe that assailants and murderers should decide where the limits of free speech should be...." — Rasmus Paludan, chairman of the Danish anti-Islam party, Stram Kurs.
The value at stake here is whether freedom of speech, regardless of what or whom it insults, can be guaranteed when it is met with violence and riots.

Jaleh Tavakoli is a Danish-Iranian blogger, an outspoken critic of Islam, and author of the book, Public Secrets of Islam. Denmark's Social Supervisory Authority has threatened to remove Tavakoli's foster child from her care, not because there is the slightest suspicion of ill-treatment of the child, but because of Tavakoli's exercising her freedom of speech. (Image source: Jaleh Tavakoli video screenshot)

In Denmark, in recent weeks, the issue of free speech has figured prominently in the news.

This March, an outspoken critic of Islam, Jaleh Tavakoli, Danish-Iranian blogger and author of the book, Public Secrets of Islam, was threatened by the Social Supervisory Authority (Socialtilsyn Øst) that her foster-daughter would be removed from her care after Tavakoli shared an online video of the rape and murder by Islamic State terrorists in Morocco of two Scandinavian young women. She was informed in a letter that the government agency's approval of her husband and her as foster parents -- they had been raising the 8-year-old since she was a newborn baby -- had been rescinded and that the girl might be taken away from them, as the authority did not consider them to "have the necessary quality to have children in your care." The letter also said: