Towards a Free World

I was walking through Manchester towards Piccadilly train station on Monday this week, as usual my head was buried in a book, on this occasion ‘Quicksilver’ by Neal Stephenson, when I was stopped by a beaming young woman. I thought at first that she must be someone I knew, and began to try to put a name to her face. She stopped me by saying ‘That’s brilliant you are reading a book whilst walking.’
I pulled down my sunglasses to meet her eye to eye.
‘Why don’t people do that anymore? I mean we have all got perfectly good peripheral vision we could easily walk and read at the same time.’
Before I could venture an opinion, she again asked ‘Why does nobody do that? Why don’t they read as they walk?’
I answered, perhaps a little glibly ‘Because they are too lazy.’
She smiled again and patted me on the shoulder as she walked away ‘Good man, good, good man.’

However, I cannot help but feel that my initial thought was wrong.
People who do not read on the hoof do not do so because they are too lazy to read, but rather most people are far more concerned with their own thoughts than the thoughts of others, including those of others carefully wrote down.
The closest many of us get these days to taking serious consideration of other peoples thoughts are through music lyrics as we walk through the streets listening to our iPods and Walkmans. Even then it is a shallow form of interaction as almost all people are simply trying to find music, which to paraphrase Richard Ashcroft, ‘recognizes the pain in me, yeah.’ Reading newspapers does not count, as even apparently controversial newspapers, such as the Independent, produce large tracts of such anodynity that reading a late C19th copy of the Times with its pages and pages of verbatim proceedings of Parliament would seem entertaining in comparison.

A walk through Waterstone’s bookstore in any town will amply demonstrate the point. Almost all the books on sale are meaningless drivel, shelf after shelf of Mind, Body and Spirit. Which if it were referring to self improvement through gaining actual knowledge on some worthwhile subject, physical exercise and strong drink it might recommend itself for study to anybody. Instead, tales of energy crystals and angels and all sorts of other insipid self-delusional works designed to cater to whatever phantasy a person may have and not wish to have contradicted, line the shelves.
In my local town, I note that the Science section has roughly a sixth of the space of the MBS (perhaps a truthful acronym for Mediocre Bull Shit) section. It is a pity and a real travesty.
The rest of the store filled to the brim with works of nostalgia, and the latest airport novels. A small section or two usually hidden away in embarrassment that a customer might see them, contain philosophy, science and science fiction, history and controversial political works though these seem to be filled with the bland neo-communist tracts of Chomsky et al rather than any serious constructive dissention from the status quo. A person would actually already want to read these books in most cases be able to find them.

So why would anybody be found today walking around reading when finding something challenging, something to make one think, is actually rather difficult, not least because of the temptation to pick up some drivel which merely confirms one’s biases, rather than challenges and thwarts them, is made so very easy.
Such things provide no materiel for mulling over. Therefore, a person may very well prefer to walk around thinking of that bitch Jane in accounts, why their boss is such a bastard not giving them a pay raise and other such mundanities, because, it is challenging thinking by comparison to the alternative.

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Omar, of Iraq the Model,, has posted an article on the latest cache of documents to be declassified by the US Military relating to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
These documents are internal Iraqi memoranda, written in Arabic, and notes on certain foreign affairs, such as the laws on donations to political parties in France, and what to do in the event of a weapons inspection taking place (clean any equipment used for CBW training apparently).
Some of the more interesting documents are on the topic of Al Qaeda in Iraq. One, as yet untranslated document features pictures of al-Zarqawi, who was apparently under observation by the Iraqi secret service following his arrival in Iraq in 2002. Another document contains details of Iraqi worries about the US having evidence that they had dealings with Bin Laden, Omar helpfully has translated this last document.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Iraqi documents, al Qaeda, war on terror

Ladies and Gentlemen I direct your attention to the March for Free Expression blog. These good people are organising a Rally in Trafalgar Square between 2:00pm and 4:00pm on Saturday March 25th 2006.
They have the express intention of standing up against the loud mouthed mobs and their weak willed defacto allies amongst our political classes, who seem to imagine that Freedom of Speech is a relative concept that ought to brushed under the carpet when inconvenient.
Posters and banners are available on the site and donations are welcomed.

March for Free Expression

Technorati Tags: March for free expression, freedom of speech

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch MP, who’s film ‘Submission’ co-authored with dead Dutch Film maker Theo van Gogh, has given a speech on Freedom of Speech and the Right to Offend today in Berlin. The English translation is available at the link below.

DIE WELT.de Blogs - The Free West
The Right to Offend.

I am here to defend the right to offend.

It is my conviction that the vulnerable enterprise called democracy cannot exist without free expression, particularly in the media. Journalists must not forgo the obligation of free speech, which people in other hemispheres are denied.

I am of the opinion that it was correct to publish the cartoons of Muhammad in Jyllands Posten and it was right to re-publish them in other papers across Europe.

Technorati Tags: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Freedom of Speech, Right to Insult

Jyllands Posten has published a manifesto, calling for writers, journalists, intellectuals to reject and defy religious totalitarianism, by promoting freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all

This is something I care deeply about. Over the past 30 years Europe has undergone an immense experiment, an experiment which has allowed a growing number of islamofascists to enter our nations, and hide amongst their more moderate cousins.
People like Omar Bakri Mohammed, who with their preaching, and groups of young brown shirts, seem to be succeeding in promoting Islamist viewpoints.
Viewpoints which are diametrically opposed to those of most of us in the West. All thanks to the culture of limp wristed political correctness, which has sapped our cultures and moral strength. I stand for the values of the enlightenment, liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience.

As Kant said Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! [Dare to know!] Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.

I stand with Jyllands Posten on this issue.

Latest Jyllands-Posten

… The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats. …

Technorati Tags: liberty, freedom, Jyllands Posten, freedom of speech, anti totalitarianism, anti fascism

A fascinating op-ed by André Glucksmann from Sign and Sight Magazine:

Andre Glucksmann: Separating truth and belief - signandsight

… Civilised discourse analyses and defines scientific truths, historic truths and matters of fact relating to knowledge, not to faith. And it does this irrespective of race or confession. We may believe these facts are profane or undignified, yet they remain distinct from religious truths. Our planet is not in the grips of a clash of civilisations or cultures. It is the battleground of a decisive struggle between two ways of thinking. There are those who declare that there are no facts, but only interpretations - so many acts of faith. These either tend toward fanaticism (”I am the truth”) or they fall into nihilism (”nothing is true, nothing is false”). Opposing them are those who advocate free discussion with a view to distinguishing between true and false, those for whom political and scientific matters – or simple judgement – can be settled on the basis of worldly facts, independently of arbitrary pre-established opinions. …

Technorati Tags: The Enlightenment, rationalism, Islam, Muslim, Philosophy

Today the Bin Ladenist terrorists or perhaps, as George Galloway calls them, the Iraqi ‘Resistance,’ have struck at a religious symbol of those poor Iraqis who are unfortunate enough to be the wrong type of Muslim for these ‘brave freedom fighters’.

Aside from murdering the guards, the terrorists, blew apart the central dome of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, holy to the Shia religious community, with powerful explosives.

It is a move designed to increase the likelihood of inter-communal strife and civil war, while the villainous cowards who plan these attacks sit on the sidelines smugly satisfied by the horror and carnage they have brought about.

BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Iraq shrine bombing
Technorati Tags: iraq, al-aksari, mosque, muslim, shia, sunni, terrorism

Christopher Hitchens has more to say on the repulsive lack of support for Denmark from the Bush government:

The incredible thing about the ongoing Kristallnacht against Denmark (and in some places, against the embassies and citizens of any Scandinavian or even European Union nation) is that it has resulted in, not opprobrium for the religion that perpetrates and excuses it, but increased respectability! A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary—that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let’s be sure we haven’t hurt the vandals’ feelings.

Hitch, proposes a quiet gathering outside the Danish Embassy in Washington for those who can make it, and has an email address in the article if you are interested.

For those stuck in the UK like me, perhaps we could make a similar gesture. I ask that any interested Mancunians let me know and perhaps we can arrange a gathering of our own at the Danish Consulate in Manchester.

Stand up for Denmark! - Why are we not defending our ally? By Christopher Hitchens
Technorati Tags: hitchens, islam, cartoons, muslim, denmark, freedom of speech

The delightful Scott Burgess gives his take on the Church of England, and it’s current peccadillo, trying desperately to make itself relevant in the 21st Century and apologizing for things which none of it’s current living members were responsible for:

in February of 2005 … recommendations that organic bread and wine be used at Holy Communion, that church fêtes concentrate on selling fairly traded products, and that the Church adopt “creation care prayers”, which now no doubt accompany the heartfelt apologies for inequality and selfishness. In addition, according to the Independent:

“Christians will be asked to praise the work of the Body Shop which is described as a ‘brave exception’ for getting people to consider the ethics of their shopping choices.”

It’s unclear whether this “praise” would take the form of a special Body Shop hymn, an addendum to the Book of Common Prayer (”give us this day our jojoba extra rich night cream, and deliver us from wrinkles”) or earth-toned liturgical banners bearing iconography of Anita Roddick - perhaps, in the spirit of the democratic ethos, individual congregations will be allowed to choose their own devotional means.

Delightful stuff.

The Daily Ablution on the Church of England

I was using Orkut earlier today when I came across this posted to one of the communities with a request for comments.

A letter from Another Denmark

Dear Muslim citizens in Denmark and the World

I wish to state the existence of another Denmark: A Denmark that wants to live in
peace with the Muslim world. There is another Denmark, which hopes for and believes
in respect and tolerance between religions and different groups of people.
As a Dane I have no responsibility for what a single and privately owned Danish
newspaper chooses to publish. Even so, I strongly condemn the actions of
Jyllands-Posten that have offended muslims around the world, and I understand the
need for an apology from the newspaper.

We all have a responsibility for treating each other, our religious faiths, and
convictions with dignity and respect. By publishing the caricatures of Muhammad, the
newspaper Jyllands-Posten failed their obligation to exercise with care and
consideration the right of freedom of speech.

I condemn all kinds of discrimination, prejudice and racism, whether it is directed
against Muslims, Jews, Christians or other groups in a society. Therefore, I reject
the hostile and prejudicial way of speaking that has marked several Danish,political
parties and media within recent years.

I want to make a request to all parts involved, that opinions and protests may be
conducted in a respectful and peaceful manner. Attacks on and threats against
individuals and assets only make the situation worse for all of us.

I believe in a world, where religions, ethnic groups and various political and
cultural opinions can coexist in an atmosphere of dialogue, tolerance and mutual
respect.
I wish to state the existence of Another Denmark that conceives itself as a part of
such a heterogenous world and humanity.

In the sincere hope of international tolerance and respect.

What sniveling pathetic toadying.

Does the person who wrote that cowardly thoughtless letter really think that they can curry favour with the hate mobs who have been recently demanding death for the entire population of Denmark, France and Germany for the insult of publishing cartoons which they didn’t like?
The only people who could possibly read those words and sympathise with them are people, like the writer, who live in mortal fear of offending someone.
And their hearing and lauding these sentiments will help not one jot to solve the problem of unreasonable and unreasoning mobs of fundamentalists from wanting to kill the author and everyone else who does not subscribe to their ultra narrow doctrines.

As Christopher Hitchens said We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.

Another Denmark

Technorati Tags: satire, islam, Jyllands-Posten, cartoons, religion, mohammed, muslim cartoon, Freedom of Speech, cartoon crisis

Journalist Richard King has a great article in the Australian today.

As Henryk Broder put it in Der Spiegel, it was as though “a second Abu Ghraib had been discovered in a suburb of Copenhagen”. But if reaction to the Danish cartoons was scary, reaction to the reaction was scarier still […] Many who want to report the facts are unable or unwilling to do so properly, for fear that they too will be targeted. The whole affair is beginning to resemble the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, in which an exasperated Jewish official attempts to referee a stoning and ends up getting stoned himself.

He continues:

Of course, there are countless practising Muslims (and secularists within the Muslim world) who do not share the point of view of the masked and marauding fundamentalists. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that they are being spoken for by a minority with whom they have little in common. They are the principal victims here. It is their freedoms that will be the first to go if the fundamentalists get their way.

The Australian: Islam teeters at the great divide [February 11, 2006]
Technorati Tags: satire, islam, Jyllands-Posten, cartoons, religion, mohammed, muslim cartoon, Freedom of Speech, cartoon crisis

Sudan Watch is carrying an examination of a David Blair article on the current state of affairs in the bedraggled former British colony of Sudan.
It examines how now 50 years after gaining its independence from the British Empire followed by intermittent civil war, Sudan is once again a plaything of Great Powers: China and Russia as the Malthusian scramble for control of resources begins.

Sudan Watch: Array of amoral governments and rebel groups: Beijing is a key villain in Darfur’s tragedy - Russia is also to blame

Technorati Tags: Sudan, Great Powers, China, Russia

Firstly it seems that young master Khayam has had his comeuppance, the convicted drug dealer was arrested by Police for breaching the terms of his early release from a five year prison sentence. Whilst this is good news, no other members of the ‘mob’ have been arrested, indeed it wasn’t until yesterday that the Government decided that it was unhappy with the demonstration.

Welsh Cartoon Row

It seems that the Students Union have decided to engage in a little censorship themselves this week, pulping an entire print run of the Cardiff University newspaper, Gair Rhydd, and suspending its editor and three student journalists because they had printed one of the twelve Jyllands-Posten cartoons.
A spokesperson for the SU made a brief statement:

“The opinions expressed in that publication are those of the editorial team independently of the students’ union or university.

Which is an interesting opinion given that nobody was allowed to read those opinions.
She followed up saying:

“The editorial team enjoy the normal freedoms and independence associated with the press in the UK, and are expected to exercise those freedoms with responsibility.”

Except for they obviously don’t enjoy those freedoms if they cannot publish because a politically correct censorship agency pulped the papers and suspended those who held the opinions.

In Iran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has demonstrated his ignorance of the calendar by declaring that the four month old cartoons were:

an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas’s win in the Palestinian elections

Quite.

The Iranian government announced it was suspending economic ties with Denmark in protest at the cartoons, despite EU warnings that this would not be taken lightly.

In Turkey

A 16 year old boy has admitted shooting dead a 60 year old Italian priest who was praying in church as a retaliation for the publication of the cartoons.

BBC NEWS | UK | Protester is returned to prison

Telegraph article on Cardiff Papers

Guardian article on Iranian Government anger

Technorati Tags: satire, islam, Jyllands-Posten, cartoons, religion, mohammed, muslim cartoon, Freedom of Speech, Student Union, censorship, Iran

Everybodys favourite Islamic Gangster Abu Hamza, has today been found guilty of inciting murder and race hate.

Despite his claims to Freedom of Speech he was told by the Judge
, Mr Justice Hughes

“You are entitled to your views and in this country you are entitled to express them, but only up to the point where you incite murder or use language calculated to incite racial hatred. That is what you did.”

Mr Hamza is beginning a 7 year sentence for his crimes.

Reaction from Britain’s Islamic community at large to this news has been moderately positive;

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said Abu Hamza was “an embarrassment to the Muslim community, arrogant, illiterate person, with no knowledge of Islam

I might take exception to that, as Mr Hamza undoubtedly knows about Islam, but its the emphasis he chooses to make on violent Jihad against all non believers which really sets him apart from the mainstream of Islamic thought.

According to Muddassar Arani, Hamza’s solicitor, he will be appealing the verdicts, she also said that Hamza apparently…

“considers himself to be a prisoner of faith. He is subjected to slow martyrdom.”

Really, rather than just being a sad, pathetic shell of a man with nothing but hatred to offer the world, he considers himself a martyr.

BBC NEWS | UK | Abu Hamza jailed for seven years

Daily Telegraph Article

The Guardian’s take on the story

BBC NEWS | UK | Muslims react to Hamza conviction

Technorati Tags: abu hamza, race hate, extradition, prison