28 February 2006

When They Came to Silence Me

There was no one left.
Where Holland has gone, Britain and the rest of Europe are following. The silencing happens bit by bit. A student paper in Britain that ran the Danish cartoons got pulped. A London magazine withdrew the cartoons from its website after the British police informed the editor they could not protect him, his staff, or his offices from attack. This happened only days before the police provided 500 officers to protect a “peaceful” Muslim protest in Trafalgar Square.It seems the British police — who regularly provide protection for mosques (as they did after the 7/7 bombs) — were unable to send even one policeman to protect an organ of free speech. At the notorious London protests, Islamists were allowed to incite murder and bloodshed on the streets, but a passer-by objecting to these displays was threatened with detention for making trouble.
To paraphrase/plagiarize Glenn Reynolds, what's the point of a free press if it doesn't believe in free speech? Many EU governments are too weak to stand up for the principles they pretend to embody. Anyone remember what happened last time we saw this?

No comments: