Cartoon Inquisition
Remember the Intoonfadah? When a Danish newspaper's publishing of cartoons mocking Muhammad led to a not-so-spontaneous display of cartoon violence and western journalistic cowardice? Though a very precious few U.S. publications (including this here blog) dared to run so much as an excerpt from the deadly caricatures, Canada's redoubtable conservative mag the Western Standard stepped right up. As a result, appallingly, former Standard publisher Ezra Levant has been hauled into court on charges abusing the human rights of Muslims.
Check out Levant's blog for video of his chillingly banal interrogation late last week by the Alberta Human Rights Commission, and also for his full-throated fuck-you to any authority that would prosecute his free speech. Excerpt from that:
When the Western Standard magazine printed the Danish cartoons of Mohammed two years ago, I was the publisher. It was the proudest moment of my public life. I would do it again today. In fact, I did do it again today. Though the Western Standard, sadly, no longer publishes a print edition, I posted the cartoons this morning on my website, ezralevant.com.
I am here at this government interrogation under protest. It is my position that the government has no legal or moral authority to interrogate me or anyone else for publishing these words and pictures. That is a violation of my ancient and inalienable freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and in this case, religious freedom and the separation of mosque and state. […]
For a government bureaucrat to call any publisher or anyone else to an interrogation to be quizzed about his political or religious expression is a violation of 800 years of common law, a Universal Declaration of Rights, a Bill of Rights and a Charter of Rights. This commission is applying Saudi values, not Canadian values.
Previous reason commentary on the Danish cartoons can be found from Tim Cavanaugh, Brian Doherty, Cathy Young, Nick Gillespie, Julian Sanchez, and Michael Moynihan, for starters.
