June 3, 2008

Johann Hari on Mark Steyn

Is there anything easier than defending the right to free speech for people you agree with? I love Salman Rushdie’s novels, so arguing against the Islamist fanatics who want to kill him is simple. The real test of your commitment to free speech is whether you defend it for people you detest.

Today, the free speech of a man I loathe is being threatened. A former disk jockey called Mark Steyn is appearing before the British Columbia’s Human Rights Commission. They have the power to punish anybody whose speech is “likely to expose” people to “hatred or contempt.”

They are adjudicating on a book called ‘America Alone’, which I reviewed a year ago. The thesis of the book is that Europe’s Muslims – 3 per cent of the population – are ‘outbreeding’ the rest of us, and are so close to taking over and imposing shariah law there will be “mass evacuations” of white people from France in 2015. He describes as “correct” a friend who talks about “beturbanned prophet-monkeys”, and openly celebrates the birth of “white” babies. (George Bush reportedly gave a copy of the book to all his West Wing staffers.)

It is a piece of bigotry, based on garbled statistics and ugly prejudices. But free speech includes the right to make claims that are wrong, stupid or abhorrent – or it is no freedom at all. The way to rebut Mark Steyn is through argument. His case is weak; it will never win in an open row. Expose the facts. Rebut his figures. Laugh at his ignorance. The truth is strong; trust it.

But the Islamic students who reported Steyn to the commission have made it look like he must have a strong argument – one so demonic in its force it needs to be shut away behind prison bars. You’re offended? I’m offended. But you are not feeble children. Offend him back, in argument, every day if you like. Oh, and I’m also offended by the passages in the Hadith that call for gay people to be killed. Want to ban them? Thought not.

We can get into a puerile game where we all shriek to silence the people we disagree with. Or we can grow up, and have an argument. That’s why – for today, and only for today – I am standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Mark Steyn.

[here]