Welcome to the Norwegian Freedom Of Speech Association
Basic Western democratic values have come under pressure. First and foremost, this applies to the freedom of speech. The main source of this pressure is the increasing influence of Islamists in Europe. We no longer dare to engage in an open debate. We have to be careful not to step on anyone's toes or provoke.
Geert Wilders, the famous Dutch politician and Islam critic, was denied admission to Britain, where he had been invited to speak before the Parliament, because they feared that this would provoke the British Muslim population. He is also awaiting trial in the Netherlands for insulting Islam, among other things for comparing radical Islam with Nazism.
Last year, Brigitte Bardot was sentences by a French court for "hate speech" for sending an open letter to Nicolas Sarkozy claiming that the Muslims were ruining France.
The Austrian politician, Susanne Winter, was recently sentenced to pay a fine of 31 000 €, for claiming that the prophet Muhammed was a pedophile for having sex with his 9 year old wife. A Finnish court has recently pressed charges against a Finnish politician for making similar claims.
Last year, a Dutch cartoonist , Gregorius Nekschaf, was arrested for drawing a Muslim and a Christian fundamentalist as homosexual zoombies.
There are numerous other examples, and they all illustrate how the Western world lets itself push. Here in Norway, the freedom of speech came under attack from members of our own government earlier this year. They wanted to pass a law that would make even qualified arguments against the religions of minorities a crime. A large resistance against the proposal, mainly expressed through social media on the Internet, forced them to abandon the idea.
As a growing fraction of Europe's population will come from a Muslim background, we expect to see our politicians increasingly force our traditions to yield to special demands from the Muslims, in particular when it comes to our freedom of speech and our right to debate religions freely and openly.
If we choose not to oppose this development, intolerance will defeat tolerance. Western politicians will yield to the demands from intolerant Muslims, paradoxically in the name of tolerance itself, and the end result will be less freedom for everyone.
Already, we see small examples: A British library had to move the Bible from the top shelf and out of sight, so it wouldn't be placed higher than the Koran, which would be a violation of Muslim traditions. A Christmas celebration in a British town had to change name to a "feast of light" not to offend the town's Muslims.
The Norwegian Freedom of Speech Association, and our blog, frie-ytringer.com, is dedicated to the idea that the freedom of speech is non negotiable. We will therefore do everything we can to protect the freedom of speech, sometimes also test its current conditions in Norway. To us the freedom of speech is the right to express one's opinions freely, without the risk of prosecution, or the risk of being brought to silence by the threat of violence.
The freedom of speech grants us the right to express whatever we like, even regarding other people. It does, however, not grant us the right to make up lies about other individuals and spread those lies to the public. Neither does it grant us the right to suppress other speakers by making noise, nor throwing rocks at politicians during outdoor meetings. Setting cars on fire or breaking windows, even if allegedly done to express a protest against something, goes far beyond exercising one's freedom of speech.
But the freedom of speech grants us the right to freely say or write our opinion, no matter how stupid, insulting, irritating or provoking others may find it. This freedom we will cherish. We will protect our basic Western values, and not surrender to the growing number of Muslim extremists and their negative views on women and homosexuals and their demands that we should not offend them by criticising their extremism.
Kind regards
Jan Simonsen, chairman
(Translated by Vidar Kristiansen)
