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Celebrated author Mark Steyn has been
summoned to appear before two Canadian judicial panels
on charges linked to his book "America Alone."
The book, a No. 1 bestseller in Canada,
argues that Western nations are succumbing to an Islamist
imperialist threat. The fact that charges based on it
are proceeding apace proves his point. Steyn, who won
the 2006 Eric Breindel Journalism Award (co-sponsored
by The Post and its parent, News Corp), writes for dozens
of publications on several continents. After the Canadian
general-interest magazine Maclean's reprinted a chapter
from the book, five Muslim law-school students, acting
through the auspices of the Canadian Islamic Congress,
demanded that the magazine be punished for spreading
"hatred and contempt" for Muslims.
The plaintiffs allege that Maclean's
advocated, among other things, the notion that Islamic
culture is incompatible with Canada's liberalized, Western
civilization. They insist such a notion is untrue and,
in effect, want opinions like that banned from publication.
Two separate panels, the British Columbia
Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights
Commission, have agreed to hear the case. These bodies
are empowered to hear and rule on cases of purported
"hate speech."
Of course, a ban on opinions - even
disagreeable ones - is the very antithesis of the Western
tradition of free speech and freedom of the press. Indeed,
this whole process of dragging Steyn and the magazine
before two separate human-rights bodies for the "crime"
of expressing an opinion is a good illustration of precisely
what he was talking about.
If Maclean's, Canada's top-selling magazine,
is found "guilty," it could face financial
or other penalties. And the affair could have a devastating
impact on opinion journalism in Canada generally. As
it happens, Canadian human-rights commissions have already
come down hard on those whose writings they dislike,
like critics of gay rights.
Nor should Americans dismiss this campaign
against Steyn and Maclean's as merely another Canadian
eccentricity. Speech cops in America, too, are forever
attempting similar efforts - most visibly, on college
campuses. In fact, New York City itself has a human-rights
panel that tries to stamp out anything deemed too politically
incorrect. Since 9/11, Americans have been alert to
the threat of terror from radical Islamists. But there's
been all too little concern for a creeping accommodation
of radical Islamist tenets, like curbs on critical opinions.
That needs to change.
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