Will Sharia Law, which trumps all secular law including America’s First Amendment, ever come to the United States?
If you think it’s impossible, then look at what’s happening in America’s Mother Country, Great Britain.
The office of London’s first Muslim mayor has secured millions of pounds to fund a police “online hate crime hub” to work in “partnership with social media providers” to criminalise “trolls” who “target… individuals and communities.”
“Trolls” refer to individuals who post oppositional statements on the Internet, including on Facebook and other social media. Ominously, London’s first Muslim mayor is aiming his criminalization of troll activity at those who criticize or condemn his religious ideology in a manner he dislikes.
Will non-Muslims in London have the same right to call the police whenever anyone criticizes or expresses hostility toward Christianity, Judiasm, or even agnosticism or atheism? Or will calling the mayor on his contradiction get you thrown in jail all by itself?
How close is London in moving toward outright dictatorship? And how far behind is America, First Amendment or no?
Convictions for crimes under Section 127 of the Communications Act of 2003, a law increasingly used to prosecute “internet trolls”, have increased ten-fold in a decade, official figures revealed in May last year. They showed 1,209 people were found guilty of offences under the law, compared with 143 in 2004, according to the Ministry of Justice.
The law criminalises “using [a] public electronic communications network in order to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety,” and can result in a six-month prison term or fine of up to £5,000.
Imagine a law in the United States threatening to jail anyone who says things, including on the Internet, which cause “annoyance or needless anxiety.” How can I prove that the annoyance you caused me merely by something you said on the Internet is “needless,” and therefore you must be fined or jailed? Doesn’t this place all the power in my hands, by defining the law in a totally subjective way?
And how do we apply this to Islam? Are you an Internet troll who causes “inconvenience” and “needless anxiety” only if you’re critical of Islam? Or are you also an Internet troll if you are pro-Islam and hateful towards infidels who disagree with Islam? How is the law to settle such a dispute?
“Pure rants, very childish [people online] are increasingly criminalised, and as a result of that the police is becoming more and more involved in controlling our morality”, explained Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, on BBC Radio 4 this morning.
Again, isn’t one man’s rant another man’s passion? How is the law to determine what distinguishes a “childish” and therefore criminal rant from a reasonable or justified one?
If you want to erode or eliminate freedom of speech, the best way to do so is advancing the idea that “you make me feel” a certain way. Nobody has the power to make anyone feel anything. Words and statements only have the power you give them. The law has no business being involved, not unless or until the actual initiation of force is utilized or threatened. Burning down another’s business or home as an expression of political or religious views is not the same as expressing those views on the Internet. If people have lost the ability or willingness to recognize the distinction, then freedom of speech is already on its way out.
Those who expressed concern when London elected its first Muslim mayor were immediately branded racists and bigots. But Islam is unequivocal in its support for what it sees as the right never to be offended. Such an attitude is on a collision course with not just the First Amendment in the United States, but with the entire basis of Western cultural and legal tradition. It was valid to fear a Muslim mayor in London for precisely the reasons we now see, plain as day: Islam is incompatible with freedom of speech, because it stands for the complete opposite.
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