Saturday, April 24, 2010

Take Back Our Freedom Of Speech

   A few years back Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch film maker, was murdered in cold blood by Islamic radicals for making a film critical of their religion. Then Islamic radicals around the world protested a simple cartoon in a Danish newspaper which dared to parody the likeness of Mohamed. These events have effectively kowtowed the world into nervous submission to these kooks.
    Last week, the creators of South Park on Comedy Central spoofed the prophet by drawing him 'in disguise.' And even this has caused a furor and brought death threats. It's time to say: enough is enough.
    Blogger Dan Savage has proposed a worldwide Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, for May 20th. The idea being, if everybody, everywhere, would rise up in revolt and declare our right to freedom of speech, there will be too many drawings to target individually, and we can begin the process of bringing these idiots into the modern ages.
   His idea is not without merit. In The Brussels Journal, there is a Feb. 7th, 2006 article in which the author claims radical Muslims backed off of threats to Danish cartoonists after Norwegian and Swedish papers stood up in solidarity and published the images again. Apparently, these radicals feared a domino effect: if everybody started publishing the pictures, they'd lose control of the narrative and the fear factor. You can read the article here. The radicals' demands folded like a house of cards when people chose to stand up to them.
   Below is a video of the Danish cartoons which caused such an uproar a few years back. Already, they're propagating about the web, and the impact is being diluted. This is good. Let's keep it going.


   Pass this on to anybody who cherishes our God given right to free speech, and let's stand up en mass to religious intolerance, suppression, and terrorism.