Don McKee
In the wake of widespread violent protests in the Arab world, Google determined that the video did not violate its “hate speech” rules or any law and has kept the video on the Internet but conceded to the opposition in Egypt and Libya by taking the video down in those countries.
If you want to get an idea of what results from criminalizing so-called blasphemy – which includes all manner of insults and other real or imagined offenses – check out the prosecutions in the Arab world. Just last week an Egyptian court upheld a six-year prison term for a Christian school teacher convicted of insulting Islam – and the country’s Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, showing that even a mere mortal can be “blasphemed.” The Christian was found guilty for posting Facebook pictures considered to be offensive to Islam and Morsi, the Associated Press reported.
Case after case of prosecution for blasphemy is documented by Human Rights First. Most of these are in the Middle East, notably Pakistan, but include India and European countries. In Austria in 2011, a woman who gave a series of lectures in Vienna was convicted of “denigrating the teachings of a legally recognized religion” and fined 480 Euros. She initially was charged with incitement to hatred as a result of lectures criticizing Islam.
Human Rights First says: “Accusations of blasphemy have resulted in arrests and arbitrary detentions and have sparked assaults, murders and mob attacks….Journalists, bloggers, teachers, students, poets, religious converts, Internet users and others have been targeted, charged and sentenced to prison or received other punishments for exercising their right to freedom of expression.”
So far, First Amendment protection has been afforded the video and its producer Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. But he has been arrested and jailed in Los Angeles on suspicion of violating probation on a 2011 bank fraud conviction. So chances are he will get a three-year sentence, providing the proverbial pound of flesh for angry Muslims.
Yet President Obama tried to get Google to dump the video, asking the company to reconsider its decision to keep the video up. Google refused. The attempt to squelch the offending video fits into Obama’s policy of trying to defend Islam, in the view of Lyombe Eko, professor of journalism, University of Iowa. He cites Obama’s trip to Egypt in 2009 when he made a statement that raised false expectations, to wit: “I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”
That statement, Eko writes, “gave the world the false impression that (Obama) could control media content in America” and led to false expectations that he could squelch the video to appease offended Muslims. But he couldn’t. Free speech still lives.
dmckee9613@aol.com
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Pakistan is not in the Middle East. It is neighbors with India, China, Iran along with Afghanistan (again not in the Middle East).
Willful incitement is not free speech. One is no freer to scream "fire" in a crowded movie theater than to publish a willfully false and provocative video that will surely allow the opportunists in Islamic countries to use it to further their own political aims.
To shift the focus of scrutiny from the motives and intentions of the publisher of this video is to a large degree (1) to support your own biases against President Obama and (2) allows provocateurs like this Nakoula character free reign to do this again and again.
Foley , you are not a deep thinker.
You compare grapes to watermelons. Take a break, you are worn out.
Islam and sharia are in direct conflict with the U.S. Constitution, but they will not rest or stop their violence until they have commpletely dominated our country and its laws. This is just the beginning.
At the Democrat convention in 2008, there were only twenty-some Muslims as delegates. This year the number had leaped to well over 200 Muslim delegates. It's clear that Islam and leftists in America have joined together to change our country forever. Now what will we do about it?
I ask you to be patient and when I win my second term, I will see to it that America becomes a country that apologizes for all of it's wrongs. I cannot lift you all up, but I can bring America down to your level. I can, and will also reduce our nuclear arsenal to a level that we will no longer be the strongest country in the world. You all know this because the microphone was "accidentally" left on when I promised that to Medvedev. Now I must go and pay tribute to the Prophet."
This "free speech" argument is among the many bogus "outrages" the far right is flogging in a desperate attempt to smear Obama ahead of the election. See recent polling in swing states if you want to know how it's working.
If recent events and the cover up, Limbaugh notwithstanding, aren't enough to outrage you, then I feel very, very sorry for you, for you have lost your way.
We'll see how the Boy President does in the debates Wednesday. My theory is even the leftist news hacks asking the questions won't be able to cover for him this time.
See if this comes out in a day or two. (Source: Walid Shoebat)
Does this sound as though he believes in free speech Don? Just the fact that the U.S. government revealed this Egyptian Coptic Christian's (filmmaker's) full name and location was bad enough. The cover up is what this is all about. The fact that Obama and his administration lied about events on 9-11-11 and are getting away with it, thanks to the complicity of America's news corps. And our diplomatic community has lost so much because of it, but where is analysis of that? All focussed on the fake controversy over this You Tube film. Such blatant abuse.
I don't think so.