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Friday, May 27, 2005
Crushing Of Dissent - Italian Edition
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Clayton Cramer brings this news story home:
If this reeks of the college speech codes that leftists love so much, yes, exactly.
He also contrasts how the religiously defamed respond in two different societies:
I guess one of the most startling aspects of Islamic fanaticism is the extent to which the fanatics can't tolerate criticism. One of the tipoffs of how radically different our worldviews are is this demonstration by followers of an Iraqi cleric whose turban is wound too tight:
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Thousands of Shiites, many waving Islam's holy book over their heads, protested the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq on Friday, setting off clashes in at least one southern city as they answered a call by an anti-American Shiite cleric to paint Israeli and American flags on the ground and stomp on them.
Am I happy to see these idiots insulting our flag? No. It stirs strong feelings in me, so much so that I just have to...laugh. Clearly, this flag stomping was designed to enrage U.S. forces and American public opinion so that they would overreact--in the same way that Newsweek's bogus claims of Koran desecration caused Muslims to start rioting--and killed other Muslims.
In the U.S., liberals were just thrilled at having the government fund art intended to offend Catholics (the crucifix in urine, the Madonna in elephant dung). These are about the same level of offensiveness as the supposed flushing of the Koran. These art exhibits made Catholics upset--so much so that these narrow-minded sorts wanted the government to stop taxing them to fund insults. I must have missed the Catholics who, incensed over these insults, started riots that left scores dead.
There's more. Joe Bob says check it out.
Read my old post on another such contrast. Here is a summary:
- American theaters show The Last Temptation of Christ: deaths - 0, injuries - 0, buildings destroyed - 0
- A Nigerian columnist remarks that Mohammad would approve of beauty pageants: deaths - 50, injuries - 200, buildings destroyed - at least 11 (ten churches, distribution office of the paper that published the column)
Read also this old post that, among other things, explains the problems with "hate speech" criminalization.
No word on whether the Fallaci case is spurring anti-Italian violence.
Update: Gee, would Salman Rushdie be facing similar charges if he were an Italian citizen?
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