Freedom of speech is being threatened in the United States by a nascent culture of hostility to different points of view. As political divisions in America have deepened, a conformist mentality of “right thinking” has spread across the country. Increasingly, American universities, where no intellectual doctrine ought to escape critical scrutiny, are some of the most restrictive domains when it comes to asking open-ended questions on subjects such as Islam.

Legally, speech in the United States is protected to a degree unmatched in almost any industrialized country. The U.S. has avoided unpredictable Canadian-style restrictions on speech, for example. I remain optimistic that as long as we have the First Amendment in the U.S., any attempt at formal legal censorship will be vigorously challenged.

Culturally, however, matters are very different in America. The regressive left is the forerunner threatening free speech on any issue that is important to progressives. The current pressure coming from those who call themselves “social-justice warriors” is unlikely to lead to successful legislation to curb the First Amendment. Instead, censorship is spreading in the cultural realm, particularly at institutions of higher learning.

The way activists of the regressive left achieve silence or censorship is by creating a taboo, and one of the most pernicious taboos in operation today is the word “Islamophobia.” Islamists are similarly motivated to rule any critical scrutiny of Islamic doctrine out of order. There is now a university center (funded by Saudi money) in the U.S. dedicated to monitoring and denouncing incidences of “Islamophobia.”

The term “Islamophobia” is used against critics of political Islam, but also against progressive reformers within Islam. The term implies an irrational fear that is tainted by hatred, and it has had a chilling effect on free speech. In fact, “Islamophobia” is a poorly defined term. Islam is not a race, and it is very often perfectly rational to fear some expressions of Islam. No set of ideas should be beyond critical scrutiny.

To push back in this cultural realm—in our universities, in public discourse—those favoring free speech should focus more on the message of dawa, the set of ideas that the Islamists want to promote. If the aims of dawa are sufficiently exposed, ordinary Americans and Muslim Americans will reject it. The Islamist message is a message of divisiveness, misogyny, and hatred. It’s anachronistic and wants people to live by tribal norms dating from the seventh century. The best antidote to Islamic extremism is the revelation of what its primary objective is: a society governed by Sharia. This is the opposite of censorship: It is documenting reality. What is life like in Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Northern Nigerian States? What is the true nature of Sharia law?

Islamists want to hide the true meaning of Sharia, Jihad, and the implications for women, gays, religious minorities, and infidels under the veil of “Islamophobia.” Islamists use “Islamophobia” to obfuscate their vision and imply that any scrutiny of political Islam is hatred and bigotry. The antidote to this is more exposure and more speech.

As pressure on freedom of speech increases from the regressive left, we must reject the notions that only Muslims can speak about Islam, and that any critical examination of Islamic doctrines is inherently “racist.”

Instead of contorting Western intellectual traditions so as not to offend our Muslim fellow citizens, we need to defend the Muslim dissidents who are risking their lives to promote the human rights we take for granted: equality for women, tolerance of all religions and orientations, our hard-won freedoms of speech and thought.

It is by nurturing and protecting such speech that progressive reforms can emerge within Islam. By accepting the increasingly narrow confines of acceptable discourse on issues such as Islam, we do dissidents and progressive reformers within Islam a grave disservice. For truly progressive reforms within Islam to be possible, full freedom of speech will be required.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the founder of the AHA Foundation. 

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/free-speech-threat-united-states/

This article is republished here:

Dear Senators,  Dear Congressman;

Where is the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Creamer and the others who were caught on camera admitting to planning violence at Trump /Pence campaign rallies, acknowledged vote fraud, acknowledged coordination with Democrat National Committee, and on official White House records meeting Obama admin people many times and with Obama himself?

Sincerely,

References:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/project-veritas-action-robert-creamer-donald-trump-rallies/index.html

http://joeforamerica.com/2016/10/felon-organized-violence-trump-rallies-visited-white-house-342-times-yep/

“The [Project Veritas] investigation, which was released in a four-part video series throughout the months of October and November, exposed political corruption within the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign. The video investigation– which received media coverage from every single mainstream media outlet, trended on social media worldwide, and was a topic of debate during one of the Presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton– had a monumental effect on the 2016 presidential election.”

http://projectveritas.com/2017/06/01/democracy-partners-attacks-veritas-launches-1-million-federal-lawsuit/

The actions of Hawaii’s governor will financially harm the poorest citizens of our state, further limit business opportunities in the state and produce no change in the climate. He is not proposing to send money outside of Hawaii and so far he is not negotiating with any foreign entities. He proposed to reduce CO2 emission from human sources in Hawaii by moving away from fossil fuels, and to further promote their understanding of “sustainability.” Note, there is no effort or comment about research or methods to reduce the 8,500 tons per day of CO2 that the Kilauea volcano emits into the air everyday, nor to reduce the actually harmful sulfur gas emissions…which tells you this is not about greenhouse gases but “social justice” … and no effort I can see to develop the obvious geothermal resource here. The governor is probably committing a felony federal crime under the Logan Act, a law which was intended to prevent the undermining of the federal government’s position. Hawaii’s one party government policies are indoctrinated in “social justice” dogma and its cronyism.

Here is an clear example of how global elites are attempting to scam you for trillions of dollars for the rest of your life. This graphic is in an alarming report by Vinod Thomas, formerly of the World Bank.

The report is anti-Trump, pro-Paris Agreement and published by The Brookings Institution. Brookings is supposedly a reputable, trustworthy organization and this report probably will be reported in mainstream media. However, contrary to the impression presented by this deceitful graphic, neither average temperatures nor temperature anomaly have increased by 10 degrees C, and, using real world data those two trend lines do not overlap but diverge. The divergence of these two trends is evidence against human-caused global warming. I hesitate to post the link to such shabby work, but here it is for reference. (In the report at the link see Figure 2: Carbon dioxide atmospheric concentrations at Mauna Loa and global annual temperature anomaly: 1959–2014.) https://www.brookings.edu/…/future-development/2017/06/05/t… Hat tip: SEPP.org

This graphic below shows the same two trends as the graphic above but instead using data from the pro-global warming Hadley research unit in the UK’s climate bureaucracy. The time periods are not identical but they overlap.

These two graphs below show the difference between temperature and temperature anomaly.   B

Below is global air temperature average according to NASA’s GISS unit at Columbia University in Manhattan. 

Below is the average global CO2 concentration, plotted by Dr. Roy Spencer, former NASA scientist.

Oh, and by the way, the World Bank is managing the $1 Billion that Obama already illegally contributed on your behalf to the UN’s Green Climate Fund. They will be loaning it to third world countries, whatever is left of it after UN bureaucrats take what they want.

Much to do about nothing, except of course that the governments of 194 countries, the UN, the EU, a large number of global corporations, most of mainstream media, many NGOs, and global elites want to tax you trillions of dollars.

It’s just math folks.