As I noted in my last column,
"The
Stinking Badges of Our Federales"
(June 2nd), the Department of Justice is again on the attack against
freedom of speech. The occasion for this guerilla attack is a talk to be given
by United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee Bill Killian
during an event sponsored by the American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee.
His talk will be about civil
rights restrictions on speech in the "social media" as it applies
to Muslims – that is, speech that criticizes Muslims and Islam, not speech by
Muslims that could be defined as "bigoted" or "hateful" –
and there is far, far more of that than there is of the occasional
nose-thumbing of Muslims and Islam. It
will be about "inflammatory speech," which could mean anything, even
a scholarly disquisition on the origins and practice of Islam. Judicial
Watch reports that the event, called "Public Disclosure in a Diverse
Society," will
feature
the region’s top DOJ official, who serves as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of Tennessee, and an FBI representative. The goal is to increase
awareness and understanding that American Muslims are not the terrorists some
have made them out to be in social media and other circles, according to a
local newspaper
report. The June 4 powwow is sponsored by the American Muslim Advisory
Council of Tennessee.
The
area’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Killian, will address a topic that most
Americans are likely unfamiliar with, even those well versed on the
Constitution; that federal civil rights laws can actually be violated by those
who post inflammatory documents aimed at Muslims on social media. “This is an
educational effort with civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion
and exercising freedom of religion,” Killian says in the local news story.
“This is also to inform the public what federal laws are in effect and what the
consequences are.”
So, civil rights laws will be
"interpreted" to identify "harmful" statements made on Face
Book and other social media and help the DOJ and the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to lodge suits against anyone expressing his
freedom of speech if it offends Muslims and Islam.
Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs is on the warpath and is
urging readers near and far to assemble in Manchester, Tennessee to vigorously
demonstrate opposition to Killian's trial balloon of selective censorship in
favor of Muslims and Islam.
You
must stand up. Now. No one is going to do this for you. Only YOU can save you.
I strongly
urge every Atlas reader, twitter and Facebook friend who can be in Tennessee to
join us in a major demonstration for free speech on June 4th at 5:30pm
Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center, 147 Hospitality Blvd, in
Manchester, Tennessee. Change your plans, get off from work -- go. Tweet
it, Facebook share, get the word out.
AFDI,
SIOA, and other major organizations will be rallying for free speech. On June
4th, an event titled "Public Disclosure in a Diverse Society" will be
held from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at the Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center,
147 Hospitality Blvd, in Manchester, Tennessee. Speakers for the event are Bill Killian, U.S.
attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee and the FBI special agent who
runs the Knoxville office.
Instead of my explaining the
importance and ramifications of a successful trial balloon, here are Geller's own
words about the stealthy attempts to pare away layers of our First Amendment
protections:
______________________________________________________________________________
Obama's DOJ Sharia
Offensive: Seeks to Criminalize Free Speech on Social Media posts that offend
Muslims
How is this any different
than Islamic law in, say, Turkey (Obama's favorite and most trusted ally)? In
October, 43-year-old Fazil Say went on trial in Turkey for
"denigrating" Islam for a series of tweets earlier that year. In one
of his messages he had retweeted a verse from a poem by Omar Khayyám, in which
the 11th-century Persian poet attacks pious hypocrisy. This is the same thing.
If the DOJ pursued the
vicious, offensive, racist, antisemitic tweets directed at me (and others) by
Muslims and leftists, they would be pursuing little else. But they wouldn't and
they shouldn't.
Note to the Justice
Department -- we will fight you on this every step of the way. We will drag
your dhimmi asses all the way to the Supreme Court. This is Sharia enforcement,
and we are not going to stand for it.
"DOJ: Social Media
Posts Trashing Muslims May Violate Civil Rights" Judicial Watch, May 30, 2013.
In its latest effort to
protect followers of Islam in the U.S. the Obama Justice Department warns
against using social media to spread information considered inflammatory
against Muslims, threatening that it could constitute a violation of civil
rights.
The move comes a few years
after the administration became the first in history to dispatch a U.S.
Attorney General to personally reassure Muslims that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is
dedicated to protecting them. In the unprecedented event, Attorney General
Eric Holder assured a San Francisco-based organization (Muslim Advocates) that
urges members not to cooperate in federal terrorism investigations that the “us
versus them” environment created by the U.S. government, law enforcement agents
and fellow citizens is unacceptable and inconsistent with what America is
all about.
“Muslims and Arab Americans
have helped build and strengthen our nation,” Holder said after expressing that
he is “grateful” to have Muslims as a partner in promoting tolerance, ensuring
public safety and protecting civil rights. He also vowed to strengthen “crucial
dialogue” between Muslim and Arab-American communities and law enforcement.
Evidently that was a
precursor of sorts for an upcoming Tennessee event (“Public Disclosure in a
Diverse Society”) that will feature the region’s top DOJ official, who serves
as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, and an FBI
representative. The goal is to increase awareness and understanding that
American Muslims are not the terrorists some have made them out to be in social
media and other circles, according to a local newspaper report.
The June 4 powwow is sponsored by the American Muslim Advisory Council of
Tennessee.
The area’s top federal
prosecutor, Bill Killian, will address a topic that most Americans are likely
unfamiliar with, even those well versed on the Constitution; that federal
civil rights laws can actually be violated by those who post inflammatory
documents aimed at Muslims on social media. “This is an educational effort with
civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion and exercising freedom
of religion,” Killian says in the local news story. “This is also to inform
the public what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.”
The DOJ political appointee
adds in the article that the upcoming presentation will also focus on Muslim
culture with a special emphasis on the fact that the religion is no different
from others, even though some in the faith have committed terrorist acts,
Christians have done the same. As an example he offers that the worst terrorist
attack in the U.S. prior to 9/11 was committed by American Christians in
Oklahoma City. He also mentioned the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting last year
in which another Christian, an American white supremacist, fatally shot six
people and wounded four others.
“Some of the finest people
I’ve met are Muslims,” Killian said,
adding later: “We want to inform everybody about what the law is, but more
importantly, we want to provide what the law means to Muslims, Hindus and every
other religion in the country. It’s why we came here in the first place. In England,
they were using Christianity to further their power in government. That’s why
the First Amendment is there.”
Over the years the Obama
administration has embarked on a fervent crusade to befriend Muslims by
creating a variety of outreach programs at a number of key federal agencies.
For instance the nation’s Homeland Security covertly met with a group of
extremist Arab, Muslim and Sikh organizations to discuss national security
matters and the State Department sent a controversial, anti-America Imam (Feisal
Abdul Rauf) to the Middle East to foster greater understanding and outreach
among Muslim majority communities.
The Obama Administration has
also hired a special Homeland Security adviser (Mohamed Elibiary) who openly
supports a radical Islamist theologian and renowned jihadist ideologue and a
special Islam envoy that condemns U.S. prosecutions of terrorists as
“politically motivated persecutions” and has close ties to radical extremist
groups.
The president has even
ordered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to shift its
mission from space exploration to Muslim diplomacy and the government started a
special service that delivers halal meals, prepared according to Islamic law,
to home-bound seniors in Detroit. Who could forget Hillary Clinton’s special
order allowing the reentry of two radical Islamic academics whose terrorist
ties have long banned them from the U.S.?
______________________________________________________________________________
In my limited observation of social media postings regarding Muslims (e.g. blogs I choose to read & e-mails that family/friends forward; I do not use FB nor Tweets), I see two issues. First, these media tend to become "public" (open to anyone with the technology, and often re-sent around), rathe than private communication (e.g. part of personal communication). Thus, exaggerations or distortions of data which the speakers intends to use to express personal opinions with can easily become misunderstood. And, related to this, is that many of these communications are presented as jokes which someone who lacks humor, or does not find amusing, could take offense at.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, in a forwarded e-mail joke I received, the writer (unknown to me) used the adjective "bastard" in describing Muslim clerk. I do not believe that the writer intended to suggest that this fictious person was illegitimately born, but that he was an illegitamate authority in a derragatory manner. Someone might take offense at this. I took it as irrelevant to the joke, other than to express the writer's disdain. Was this "inflammatory"? Could the writer make the joke without this word (yes, in my view)?
As to your post's theme, the questions are: Can someone post data without inflammatory descriptors that communicates concern about the nature of those who follow Islam? And, what is the future of jokes, espeically those with political themes?
Oscar
Oscar, not sure if you're a random troll or serious, but you are definitely missing the point. Specifically, we (those who oppose Islam and the USA's collision course with totalitarianism) don't give a hoot (read something else there; I am trying to be civil although this subject frankly deserves the strength of the expletive) about jokes.
ReplyDeleteThe right to say whatever you want about whoever you want is what is at stake here (yes, short of actual threats etc). A fundamental right and the one without which the USA will in fact become a dictatorship.
In this specific case our government is cozying up with our mortal enemy (which makes sense as our government increasinly IS our mortal enemy).
I for one am not going to shut up about that, and I certainly won't be wasting my time joking about it.