Silencing Free Speech Again? No! Not in Our Country!

Robert Spencer's Blog, Jihad Watch, has been blocked by a variety of organizations because his anti-Islamist postings are considered "hate speech." Hmmm,..sounds very HR 1592 to me,..right, Sillys**ts??

Unblock Jihad Watch!

Two steps forward, one step back. I have heard now that Jihad Watch is available in most sites where I had learned last week that it was banned, but it is, I'm told, still banned in other places -- including Wright Patterson Air Force Base (only as of last week), and Marriott Hotels (where the ban apparently applies to company computers, not to those of guests).

A thought experiment: if I pointed out that Catholicism considered contraception sinful, which led some (but not all, or even a majority) of Catholics to eschew contraception, would this be "hate speech"? Would it mean that I hate Catholics? Would I be a "Catholophobe" (there's a new one)? If I noted that Buddhism focuses on attaining a spiritual state, a state of consciousness, and not on building a kingdom in this world, would that be a statement of hatred for Buddhists and Buddhism or a statement of fact?

Likewise, when I take note of the fact that jihadists can and do point to Islam's teachings of warfare against unbelievers in order to make recruits and justify their actions, it is not an act of hatred. It is a statement of fact. Nor is it an act of hatred to ask peaceful Muslims to acknowledge the existence of these traditional teachings, and work toward some new way they can be understood in order to minimize their capacity to incite violence. This is actually a rather commonplace observation that follows naturally from an awareness of the martial traditions that are deeply embedded in the Qur'an, the life and teachings of Muhammad, and the rulings of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

But imagine if the leading Catholic groups in the country maintained that there was no Catholic prohibition on contraception, and anyone who said there was must be an anti-Catholic bigot. That is the state of unreality that prevails in the public discourse today, keeping the problem of Islamic jihad from being discussed in many fora -- and getting this site banned in various places.