A glimpse into the future of the U.S. This can’t happen here, you say? We respect the freedom of speech, you say? Maybe that was true at one time, but it is no longer. Cowardice is pandemic. Newspapers all over the country refused to republish the notorious Muhammad cartoons out of a newfound “respect” for Islam that they never showed for negative portrayals of Christianity, which they hailed as “courageous.” Those who call attention to the ideological roots of jihad violence are excoriated as racist, bigoted “Islamophobes,” and most organizations on both the Left and the Right would never dare feature such people as speakers. Any organization that does is immediately denounced and called upon to apologize, and it usually does. So given that this is the climate today, what do you think the situation will be like in ten or twenty years?
“Critical journalist arrested over insulting the Quran,” Ahval News, April 4, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Turkish authorities have arrested Hakan Aygün, former chief editor of the left-wing opposition-linked Halk TV, on charges of insulting or inciting hatred among people, pro-government Sabah newspaper reported on Friday.
Aygün on Monday had posted a tweet that criticised Turkey’s national donation campaign, announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with wordplay over a verse in the Quran.
“Belittling the book, which is a primary priority for Muslims, and its verses through wordplay is an ugly attack beyond measure,” Mustafa Doğan İnal, a lawyer for Erdoğan who filed the complaint against Aygün, was quoted by Sabah as saying. “Our book the Holy Quran clearly states the fate of such people.”
In the complaint against Aygün, İnal argued that the journalist’s words included “insults and allegations that are impossible to tolerate,” and were “based on slanderous claims.” According to Erdoğan’s lawyer, Aygün’s tweet “insulted and belittled an identifiable group in society,” which was exacerbated due to the public nature of their medium.
İnal included in his complaint a previous post by Aygün, in which the journalist had posted a meme on his Facebook account, joking that the coronavirus had changed the restrictions on alcohol for Muslims, as further proof of malicious intent….