KC ([info]kc_anathema) wrote,
@ 2008-04-29 10:00:00
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The Canadian Islamic Congress tries for a ceasefire — but they've already lost the war
Apparently, the Canadian Islamic Congress is going to announce that it's seeking some kind of plea bargain with Maclean's magazine in regard to the human-rights complaint against Mark Steyn's famous 2006 article.

[I]t's fair to say that the Maclean's imbroglio has been one of the biggest shots in the arm to Canadian conservatives in general. It's turned red-meat right-winger Ezra Levant into a star blogger and a free-speech hero with brand-name recognition in the United States, turned Steyn's name into a household word, created a debate within the Jewish community over its traditionally doctrinaire support for blanket hate-speech laws (Ezra for CJC president, anyone?), shone a light on the amateurish shenanigans of Canada's human rights commissions, driven a powerful movement for reform of said commissions, and generally served to marginalize the pro-censorship lobby to the point that its main defender is now a disgruntled former journalist who fills his blog with unhinged conspiracy theories about how everyone who favours free speech is a racist.

All of which to say: Thank you, CIC. You've done a good deed — albeit unintentionally.

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[info]jamafanta
2008-04-30 02:28 pm UTC (link)
Steyn's article isn't even overtly anti-Islamic. It's as a warning, if the reader is inclined to see it that way. Mostly it just discusses the effect of changing demographics on politics and economics, which is a very scary thing if you don't LIKE the idea of sharia replacing local law (eep!) - but he doesn't actually condemn the changes himself.

Contrast the title of Steyn's article, "The Future Belongs to Islam", with this week's leader: "Why Israel Can't Survive". I suspect they did that deliberately, to show that they're not singling out Islam.

On a side note, my favourite part:

"The state has gradually annexed all the responsibilities of adulthood -- health care, child care, care of the elderly -- to the point where it's effectively severed its citizens from humanity's primal instincts, not least the survival instinct. In the American context, the federal "deficit" isn't the problem; it's the government programs that cause the deficit. These programs would still be wrong even if Bill Gates wrote a cheque to cover them each month. They corrode the citizen's sense of self-reliance to a potentially fatal degree."

On a second side note, a quote from Robert Heinlein:

"What are the marks of a sick culture?

"It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.

"A very bad sign. Particularism. It was once considered a Spanish vice but any country can fall sick with it. Dominance of males over females seems to be one of the symptoms.

"Before a revolution can take place, the population must loose faith in both the police and the courts.

"High taxation is important and so is inflation of the currency and the ratio of the productive to those on the public payroll. But that's old hat; everybody knows that a country is on the skids when its income and outgo get out of balance and stay that way - even though there are always endless attempts to wish it way by legislation. But I started looking for little signs and what some call silly-season symptoms.

"I want to mention one of the obvious symptoms: Violence. Muggings. Sniping. Arson. Bombing. Terrorism of any sort. Riots of course - but I suspect that little incidents of violence, pecking way at people day after day, damage a culture even more than riots that flare up and then die down. Oh, conscription and slavery and arbitrary compulsion of all sorts and imprisonment without bail and without speedy trial - but those things are obvious; all the histories list them.

"I think you have missed the most alarming symptom of all. This one I shall tell you. But go back and search for it. Examine it. Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms as you have named... But a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than a riot.

"This symptom is especially serious in that an individual displaying it never thinks of it as a sign of ill health but as proof of his/her strength."

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