2008
Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn and Secondary Crime Scenes
A major goal for me as a parent has been to teach my daughter what she needs to know to be safe. Pepper spray, a knife, a taser… these things are good. And although she’s not legally allowed to own or carry a handgun, she’s certainly proficient with them. But better than any defensive weapon she might carry is knowledge and a plan. There are two things I know to be true:
1. When you think you’re in danger, you almost certainly are in danger. Your fear is your subconscious response to things you have observed. Those “instincts” you keep trying to suppress because they might cause you to be rude, or because they seem socially unacceptable or politically incorrect may save your life if you just listen to them. If you’re wrong, you can apologize. If you’re right, you’re more likely to live to tell the tale. (Read Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear for more on this.)
2. Never go to a secondary crime scene. There may be a reason to temporarily cooperate with your attacker, but when he tries to get you to go to another location, it’s for his advantage - so he can commit more crimes against you in leisure and privacy. The primary crime scene is the best place for fight or flight. For example, if someone pokes a gun in your ribs and tells you to get in a car, immediately start screaming and fighting. Exposure may frighten the kidnapper into running away, and if not it’s certainly better to be shot in public where help is more likely to be available than to be raped, tortured and murdered in private later on.
What do these important personal safety tips have to do with Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn? People have been poking guns into their ribs and trying to get them to cooperate as crimes are committed against them. Ezra Levant has been hauled before a Human Rights Commission to answer for his thoughtcrime of criticizing Islam, and Mark Steyn is scheduled to go. But Levant, instead of meekly going along to his doom, started screaming and fighting. He videotaped his inquisition and posted it on YouTube.
While this may seem like a common-sense statement - and even a thoughtful, wise response:
After all, if enough Muslims continue to react with violence to criticism of their religion and culture, all the other nations of the West will eventually be forced to make a tragic choice between two of our highest values. Either we must clamp down on critics of Islam, mandating a uniform code of political correctness, or else we must let the critics say what they wish, regardless of the consequences, and in full knowledge that these consequences may include the death of innocents.
the truth is that there are no “innocents” - no uninvolved people - where free speech is concerned. This affects us all. The crime is already in progress. Free speech is already being attacked. The question now is will we go to the secondary crime scene and allow ourselves to be put in bondage by our attackers so that they can further oppress us?
You think you’re not a victim of the attacks on Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn? You are… but even if you weren’t, then what would that make you, as you passively watch a crime be committed before your eyes? Kitty Genovese’s neighbors, by their inaction, were certainly not innocent. They were morally complicit in her murder and fully earned the disgust of the nation. Violence is certainly a distasteful and fearful option… but making attacks against free speech more painful than listening to distressing free speech is far better than being enslaved to the rioters.
We have the right to not obey Islamic law or customs. If we do not defend that right, we will certainly lose it.
Added: Thanks for the link, and welcome, SteynOnline readers!
February 6th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Great post, Laura. Thanks for giving us a new, thought-provoking angle on what is THE biggest story in Canada though curiously underreported. Thank goodness that columnists and editorialists and bloggers like yourself are keeping it alive.
Right now a snowball, as Ezra said, is rolling and in the snowballing, rocks and saplings are being caught up as it grows in size. Expect boulders and trees and houses as this snowball turns into an avalanche.
Deborah
February 6th, 2008 at 11:13 am
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 02/06/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
February 6th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Thanks for the link, David!
And Deborah, thanks for your kind words.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Thanks for this interesting perspective - love the title (Pursuing Holiness) fo the blog- it’s so true and I spend a fair bit of time talking to my fellow Canadians about why they should care about these issues and why they should pay some attention to the political scene (because that’s where the laws are enacted that will govern Canadians’ lives). I was told by a somewhat intellectual teacher who’s Liberal (I refer to the party as Fiberal) that Ezra Levant is not exaclty a sumpathetic figure, that he’s quite polarizing - I replied that is what happens when you make a stand- you polarize people based on whether they’re in agreement with your stand or not
February 6th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
This is a brilliant summary of the problem; chilling.
We have the right to not obey Islamic law or customs.
This should be obvious. It is obvious. And yet in Canada, today, it is not true. Disobey Muslim proscriptions against representing their prophet and you will taken before a mock court, fined, even imprisoned. We are, right now, dhimmis. This is not acceptable and whatever happens we cannot allow ourselves to go without a fight.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Reply to Lamy from Montreal -
Actually I’m still deciding whether to let your propaganda exist on my website. Although it is clearly refuted by the evidence all around us - for one thing, the mainstream media protects, not attacks, radical Islam, or everyone would have heard of quotes like this:
“Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel.”
– Zuheir Muhsin, late Military Department head of the PLO and member of its Executive Council, Dutch daily Trouw, March 1977
Everyone would know that Yassir Arafat was *** and had AIDS, and they would know he faked his blood donation on 9/12. They would have repeatedly shown the photos of “Palestinians” dancing in the streets and handing out candy. They would know that the basis of the intifada, al Dura, is a lie. CAIR would not have representatives on reputable news programs unless they were being interviewed about their own unindicted co-conspirator status in a terror investigation or the fact that they folded like a house of cards in the anti-cair-net.org lawsuit. Everyone would know about the female genital mutilation, the “honor” killings, the bondage women live in, and the fact that homosexuals are executed. They would know about the poison regularly on display at MEMRI that is growing another generation of hate filled radicals. People would know the words dhimmi, taqqiya, and jizra. People would know these things and a whole lot more, if the media stopped protecting Islam. As it is, few people do know them, generally only people who rely on the internet for news.
What do those things have to do with your personal practice of Islam? Maybe nothing… except you defend it, if not actively then with your passivity. If Islam is such a great religion, why do you permit these things to be done in your name and in the name of your faith? You and millions of others can only blame yourselves for Islam’s reputation. If you don’t like it, root it out, because you are in a far better position to do so than the rest of us. The failure of “moderate” Muslims to do this is only guaranteeing a generation or more of war.
As for your comment, I haven’t decided yet whether to publish it and answer it, or if it’s even worth the time.
You might want to read this post, though -
http://pursuingholiness.com/2006/08/15/islamic-neighborhood-watch/
And this one -
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/192489.php
And by the way - just to enlighten you, because you clearly don’t understand how freedom of speech works - you don’t have freedom of speech on MY property. You’re free to say whatever you want on your own, i.e. get your own blog if you’re feeling oppressed. That’s how it works in America.