Jordan’s juridiske jeehad

Fra Frontpage Magazine (læs det hele):

De “rettroende” i det “moderat-islamiske” kongerige Jordan er opsat på at få skovlen under den vestlige tradition for ytringsfrihed, som er demokratiets fremmeste byggesten. Og nu bruger de ikke kun selvmordsbombere, men “jura”.

Men da dette vanvittige, fascistiske tiltag kun vil kunne gennemføres med assistance fra anti-demokrater, er der ingen grund til at være bekymret, vel?

For vi kommer vel aldrig i den situation, at vestlige stater som Sverige, England eller Holland, for at tage et par eksempler – eller overstatslige organisationer som f. eks. EU – i “menneskerettighedernes” navn vil udevere skribenter, tegnere, historikere, satirikere og andre meningsdannere til retsforfølgelse i et mellemøstligt land?

Vel?

In a brazen attempt to stifle free speech in the West, a Jordanian court recently summoned twelve European citizens to answer criminal charges of blasphemy and inciting hatred.

Among those sought by the court is Geert Wilders, the Dutch liberal politician who made the anti-Islamist film, Fitna. Released last March, the Dutch MP’s production caused an uproar in Islamic countries, since it equated Islam with violence. Now a Middle Eastern court would like to prosecute Wilders for the “crime.” (Ironically, a Dutch court dropped charges against him for inciting hatred against Muslims with his film the day before the Jordanian court issued its subpoena.)

The Jordanian court’s move is only the most ambitious attempt to silence debate about Islam. Until now, the preferred strategy has been to file civil lawsuits in western courts to intimidate critics. The latest version of what may be called the legal jihad is even more disturbing.

In one subpoena, issued in early June, the Jordanian court ordered ten Danish newspaper editors to travel to Jordan for the “crime” of having republished the “Mohammad cartoons” last February. The cartoons, first published in 2005, were also greeted with disturbances in Muslim lands. Seventeen Danish newspapers republished the controversial cartoons as a response to the discovery of an Islamist plot to murder Kurt Westergaard. Westergaard, a caricaturist, drew the most famous of those cartoons in the form of Mohammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, for which he is also included in the summons.
…

But while Denmark and Holland will not forcibly send innocent citizens to Jordan, this new, “legal jihad” tactic of criminalizing those believed to have insulted Islam constitutes a threat on an unprecedented level against freedom.

Citizens of western countries who criticize Islam, and are even willing to face lawsuits in civil courts their own countries for doing so, may now exercise restraint if they risk facing criminal charges in a Muslim country. Especially if the charge is blasphemy and it is being tried by a sharia court, which can impose a death sentence (The Danes and Wilders, a Jordanian lawyer said, are facing a maximum of three years in jail).