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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, May 14, 2015
GREATEST THREAT TO FREE SPEECH COMES NOT FROM TERRORISM, BUT FROM THOSE CLAIMING TO FIGHT IT
We learned recently from Paris that
the Western world is deeply and passionately committed to free
expression and ready to march and fight against attempts to suppress
it. That’s a really good thing, since there are all sorts of severe
suppression efforts underway in the West — perpetrated not by The
Terrorists but by the western politicians claiming to fight them.
One of the most alarming examples comes, not at all surprisingly, from the U.K. government, which is currently agitating for
new counter-terrorism powers “including plans for extremism disruption
orders designed to restrict those trying to radicalize young people.”
Here are the powers which the British Freedom Fighters and Democracy
Protectors are seeking:
They would include a ban on broadcasting and a requirement to submit to the police in advance any proposed publication on the web and social media or in print. The bill will also contain plans for banning orders for extremist organisations which seek to undermine democracy or use hate speech in public places, but it will fall short of banning on the grounds of provoking hatred.It will also contain new powers to close premises including mosques where extremists seek to influence others. The powers of the Charity Commission to root out charities that misappropriate funds towards extremism and terrorism will also be strengthened.
In essence, advocating any ideas or working for any political outcomes
regarded by British politicians as “extremist” will not only be a crime,
but can be physically banned in advance. Basking in his election
victory, Prime Minister David Cameron unleashed this Orwellian decree to
explain why new Thought Police powers are needed: “For too long, we
have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens ‘as long
as you obey the law, we will leave you alone.'” It’s not enough for
British subjects merely to “obey the law”; they must refrain from
believing in or expressing ideas which Her Majesty’s Government
dislikes.
If all that sounds menacing, tyrannical and even fascist to you — and really, how could it not? “extremism disruption orders” — you should really watch this video of
Tory Home Secretary Theresa May try to justify the bill in an interview
on BBC this morning. When pressed on what “extremism” means –
specifically, when something crosses the line from legitimate
disagreement into criminal “extremism” – she evades the question
completely, instead repeatedly invoking creepy slogans about the need to
stop those who seek to “undermine Our British Values” and, instead,
ensure “we are together as one society, One Nation” (I personally
believe this was all more lyrical in its original German). Click here to
watch the video and see the face of Western authoritarianism,
advocating powers in the name of Freedom that are its very antithesis.
Threats to free speech can come from lots of places. But right now, the
greatest threat by far in the West to ideals of free expression is
coming not from radical Muslims, but from the very Western governments
claiming to fight them. The increasingly unhinged, Cheney-sounding
governments of the UK, Australia, France, New Zealand and Canada —
joining the U.S. — have a seemingly insatiable desire to curb freedoms in the name of protecting them: prosecuting people for Facebook postings critical of Western militarism or selling “radical” cable channels, imprisoning peoplefor “radical” tweets, banning websites containing ideas they dislike,seeking (and obtaining) new powers of
surveillance and detention for those people (usually though not
exclusively Muslim citizens) who hold and espouse views deemed by these
governments to be “radical.”
Anticipating Prime Minister Cameron’s new “anti-extremist” bill (to be
unveiled in the “Queen’s Speech”), University of Bath Professor Bill
Durodiésaid that “the
window for free speech has now been firmly shut just a few months after
so many political leaders walked in supposed solidarity for murdered
cartoonists in France.” Actually, there has long been a broad, sustained
assault in the West on core political liberties — specifically due
process, free speech and free assembly — perpetrated not by “radical
Muslims” but by those who endlessly claim to fight them. Sadly, and
tellingly, none of that has
triggered parades or marches or widespread condemnation by Western
journalists and pundits. But for those who truly believe in principles
of free expression — as opposed to pretending to when it allows one to
bash the Other Tribe — these are the assaults that need marches and protests.
Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images