“The Five” political talk show on the American TV channel Fox News discussed the Paul Weston case.
A headline was: “Free speech? British pol arrested for quoting Churchill passage critical of Muslims.”
The panel pointed out that in the US the First Amendment – which guarantees freedom of speech – would have prevented this from happening, whereas in Britain free speech is curtailed to the point that two people could be arrested if someone overhears their private conversation in a pub which he considers of a racist nature and calls the police.
Panellist Greg Gutfeld, remarking on the lack of respect for the British wartime leader in his home country, said: “Now Churchill is seen as another dead white male, and probably racist”. He added that the danger in limiting speech is that you decrease options for outrage, which in turn increases likelihood of violence.
During the programme a clip of an interview on the Canadian channel Sun TV was shown, in which Paul Weston said: “They go out of their way not to arrest anybody from the Islamic community, no matter what awfully dreadful things they get up to, but they will immediately arrest anybody from the non-Muslim side of it who dares to raise his voice in protest about what’s going on. And the reason why they do this is because, if they have to admit that there is a serious problem with Islam, then they will have to do something about it”.
Kimberly Guilfoyle agreed with that sentiment. She said that the UK faces a serious threat of Islamic terrorism – and America is heading that way too – but, as Weston is asserting, the authorities don’t want to deal with the problem.
Juan Williams remarked that, in a multicultural, multi-religious society like Britain, public discussion of the history of Islam should not be forbidden, including its negative aspects, in the same way as it is allowed to criticise in public his own faith: Christianity.
You missed the most relevant part of the broadcast that GG raised - have a 'Read Churchill Day' tens of thousand people are very difficult to arrest !
ReplyDeleteI haven't missed it. I was about to write about it but changed my mind.
DeleteYou're right, though. We should have a 'Read Churchill Day' all over the world. we must start promoting it now. Are you coming?