Sunday, May 18, 2008

Shoot the messenger   [Mark Steyn]

You may recall, from early last year, a riveting documentary from the British TV network Channel 4. Undercover Mosque showed preachers at some of the most "moderate" mosques in Britain urging their congregants to beat their wives, toss homosexuals off cliffs, etc. So naturally the film attracted the attention of the authorities - in this case, Anil Patani, Assistant Chief Constable of West Midlands Police:

The programme recorded preachers at the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham making remarks that were not only bigoted and full of hate but also bordered on incitement to murder. Abu Usamah, one of the main preachers, was shown saying: “Osama Bin Laden, he’s better than a thousand Tony Blairs, because he’s a Muslim”; “Allah has created the woman, even if she gets a PhD, deficient. Her intellect is incomplete”; and advocating that homosexuals should be “thrown off” mountains. Mr Patani’s reaction? To refer the programme makers to the Crown Prosecution Service for inciting racial hatred.

He also referred the programme to Ofcom, the TV regulator, sending out a press release as he did so. Mr Patani’s press release claimed that “those featured in the programme had been misrepresented” and that it had “undermined community cohesion”. Those claims were blatantly false, as the Ofcom investigation itself made crystal clear. But why on earth did Mr Patani make them?

Well, because it's the now standard pattern among the authorities in Britain, Canada and Europe: When somebody points out certain features of Islam, go after the "Islamophobe". Mr Patani abused his position as Assistant Chief Constable to attempt to cow Channel 4 and others into silence on this issue. Channel 4 immediately sued the West Midlands Police for libel and the coppers have now settled out of court and paid a substantial sum. I wish I could do the same to my tormentors up north, but under the Canadian "human rights" regime truth is no defense. In the end, well-placed stooges like Anil Patani are a greater danger to free societies than a cheerfully straightforward hater like Abu Usamah.

05/18 02:37 PMShare