112 replies to this topic

[Námo]

Free speech under renewed attack by islamists:

Monday, April 13, 2009
Free Speech Under Cyber-Attack

Last Friday ... the International Free Press Society website came under cyber attack, and the server hosting it was brought down.

The previous day the story of the Motoon fundraising sale had made it into the MSM, and worldwide attention was drawn to the IFPS. News services in Indonesia, Jordan, and the Persian Gulf picked up the wire story.

So the attack the following morning was no coincidence. It’s part of the ongoing, widespread, and systematic attempt by Muslims and their allies on the Left to silence any criticism of Islam.

To counter their efforts, I’m asking you ... to help the “Turban Bomb” sale go viral on the internet. To that end, please repost the press release below on your blog, or on any forums you visit, or include it in emails that you send.

Feel free to borrow one of the images here and add it to your sidebar. Please include links to:
http://freepresssociety.blogspot.com/
http://international....wordpress.com/
or the original restored site:
http://www.internati...esssociety.org/

Provided that enough people do this, the attempts to silence IFPS will become counterproductive. The enemies of Western civilization have taken aim at a single website, but in its place a thousand, ten thousand, or a hundred thousand copies of the same information will appear.

If we harness the power of the internet to spread the word, a mere cyber attack is not enough to stop us.

read it all here!

The controversy concerns an offer of a limited number of reprints, signed by the artist, of this drawing:

the offer of buying the reprint was send to members of The Free Press Society on april the 4th via e-mail, and the initiative has apparently hit the MSM worldwide on april the 12th. I find it alarming, that some gentleman in Turkey should succeed in prohibiting me to decide what kind of art I want on my walls.

note:
I do not post the drawing to offend someone (actually the smallest size I could find on the internet), but because it has relevance for the news.

I DO respect individual peoples religious beliefs, but I also DO oppose any belief-systems attempt to silence its critiques - Islam being in essence a political ideology.

[Mathijs]

And their allies on the left?

That ruined it for me. The Socialist Party in Holland does not support islamofascism, and to throw leftists in with those people is just offending. It's very demonising, as if there is some grand socialist group which schemes to destroy the free world. Very populist. They should take that line out and some more people might bother.

Edited by Matias, 15 April 2009 - 06:34 PM.

[Námo]

1) for your information, I got e-mail from The Free Press Society just a few hours before posting; the mail did have several links to danish newspapers, but only the one to 'Gates of Vienna' in English language, so I had to use that one. Quoting them does not mean that I endorse all their views.

2) concerning this:

... They should take that line out and some more people might bother.

well, I agree on that - this would have been better:

It's part of the ongoing, widespread, and systematic attempt by Muslims the Islamic World and their allies on the Left to silence any criticism of Islam.

to shift the focus to where it should be. This is the central issue, and IMO it should be of great concern to both left, center and right!

3) concerning this:

... to throw leftists in with those people is just offending. It's very demonising, as if there is some grand socialist group which schemes to destroy the free world. Very populist.

I think that you read too much into it, just like I would do, if I said that you in your comment imply that all socialists are complete innocent in the efforts to introduce Sharia Law in western democracies. In Denmark, this is definitely not true: the more left, the more defense of Islamic values, so here the phrase and their allies on the Left DOES apply!
... and btw, populists exist on both left and right.

4) concerning this:

... The Socialist Party in Holland does not support islamofascism

Glad to hear that. Is that the PSP you are referring to? - I do not follow dutch politics that close anymore, mostly I go to the blogs of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Afshin Ellian but only once and again.

5) last:
The reactions from the left and the right, to the challenges from Islamic ideology, are certainly not unimportant, but they tend too often to turn into some quarrel between the two sides, shifting focus away from the central issue. So, please let us have a sober and constructive debate on this.

Edited by Námo, 16 April 2009 - 12:41 PM.

[Mathijs]

I'm referring to the SP, of which I am a member.

I'd like to make something clear regarding your statement of leftists more quickly defending Islamic values before we move on... you see, there is a big difference between Islamic values and extremist Islamic values. From what I've seen from decent left people in the Netherlands, (not extremists) it's mostly about making clear that difference so that we can avoid lumping every muslim person into one big group (as is often the case with nationalist populism around here).

[Banshee]

None of the left parties in Brazil has any connection with Islamism or supports it. Blaming left parties in the world at this message was quite stupid from whoever wrote this email.

[Allathar]

I don't know what to make of this... I mean, some Muslim hacked the website and now we're all going to offend every Islamic person there is? That's just wrong. There's a difference between extreme islamic and the more 'normal' ones, but with this action a lot of people are going to be offended.

[duke_Qa]

How do they know that it was muslims that hacked them? did they leave videos of themselves decapitating motherboards?

I've never heard of those sites and they sound pretty rightist, so I'm not surprised someone hacked them.

[Mathijs]

Also, remember Ghandi... an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. They offend you, so you offend them? Stupid. How about this: They offend you, you be above them and argue on an intellectual level instead?

[Tom]

Indeed Matias.

“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” - Albert Einstein

[Námo]

You are welcome to ridicule or offend me, no problem, but do not assign to me views or purposes, that I do not have.

I DO respect individual peoples religious beliefs, but I also DO oppose any belief-systems attempt to silence its critiques - Islam being in essence a political ideology.

So, to make that statement a little more clear:

For me, the single most important thing in a critique of political Islam is to distinguish between muslims (people) and Islam (ideology) - I bear no grudge or ill-will toward muslims, but I do oppose the violent, intolerant and totalitarian nature of the ideology of Islam.
[violent: the concept of Jihad, war against non-muslims; intolerant: the concept of Dhimmi, islamic apartheid, and totalitarian: Sharia, islamic law]

A critique of Islam (ideology) is too often met with allegations of offending or insulting muslims (people) in order to silence such critique. So, just consider this:

For centuries, there has been much strong criticism of Christian ideology, and sure a lot of christians have felt offended by that criticism; IMO that criticism has moved us toward more open and free societies. But still today there are organizations like Opus Dei, who wants to turn back the clock and prohibit rights, that we today consider as fundamental for a free society.

Now, should all this criticism (be it right or wrong) had been silenced, on the pretext that it offended people?

Whatever your answer to that might be, please apply the same principle to critique of Islam!

If you study the holy scripts of Islam - the Quran, Ahadith and the Sira (life) of Mohamed - they all clearly states that no interpretation of Islam is possible, because the teachings and commands of those scripts are eternal and universally valid, and any critique are considered ziddiq (heretical) and the penalty according to Sharia being death.

To phrase it very simple:

There are moderate muslims, but there is no moderate Islam

So many (moderate) muslims just keep silent, and only very few muslims dare protest against the oppression.

I've been active in left-wing politics for more than thirty years, defending freedom rights and figthing oppression, and I'm sticking to that for the rest of my life. So today I'm taking side with those critical muslims, who dare to speak out against Islam, even under threat of death - I support people like Salman Rushdie, Ibn Warraq, Taslima Nashrin, Irshad Manji, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Wafa Sultan ...

... let one of those have a say in this debate, too:

Wafa Sultan, in the famous interview on Al-Jazeera, February 21st, 2006:
(commenting on the motoons and the islamic reaction to those)

Wafa Sultan, on women in Islam and the necessity to fight Islam:

Should even the voices of those few, who has the courage to speak like this, be silenced?

[Spectre]

I usually believe that people should be allowed to do what they want as long as it goes along a set of guidelines (Obviously things like homicide shouldn't be allowed), but for some countries or ideologies it just doesn't turn out equal for all. I don't exactly hate any religion, but I don't believe in them either.

I'm sorry Namo, but this board needs more Islamic hate like a hole in the head. Sure, Islam is a bit on the extreme side, but we don't have to hate it or fight against it, we Westerners aren't the rule-makers and baby-sitters of the world, they can do what they want, we shouldn't be there to watch everything.

[Hostile]

Thank you for trying to enlighten the masses here at Revora.

[Rob38]

I think the problem with religion is when politics gets infused in it. Islam originally was not an oppressive religion, but power hungry people started changing things to suit their preferences and desires. Same thing happened with Christianity and the Pope many years ago.

[mike_]

I personally don't have any problems with Islam - I have a pretty large respect for it and its followers, actually. The kind of devotion that they have towards their beliefs is admirable. However, I can't stand ignorance - teenagers going around trying to be funny shouting, 'Alalalalalalalalalah!' gets pretty frustrating. And the entire religion being condemned for the actions of a few Shiite extremists - that's just stupid.

[segwayrulz]

I dont mind islam. just sit back and laugh at them. Ive seen some go on a rollercoaster in full like "terrorist garb" funny as.
I had to write a stupid 1500 word essay on Islam for school. A+ (yes im crap at grammer when i cbf doing decent grammer but im awesome when it comes to actually trying)

[mike_]

'Terrorist garb'? Really?

Idiot.

[segwayrulz]

fine then its a burka.

[mike_]

And you laugh at it?

[Caspa]

I would

[Casen]

I'm sorry Namo, but this board needs more Islamic hate like a hole in the head. Sure, Islam is a bit on the extreme side, but we don't have to hate it or fight against it, we Westerners aren't the rule-makers and baby-sitters of the world, they can do what they want, we shouldn't be there to watch everything.

Are you listening to yourself?

Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.