Manfesto 12 get death threats
You may have heard of the “Manifesto of 12“, which we inexplicably neglected to mention here on MWW. Signed by twelve writers, journalists and public intellectuals (Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Chahla Chafiq , Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Irshad Manji , Mehdi Mozaffari, Maryam Namazie, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, Antoine Sfeir, Philippe Val, Ibn Warraq), it is a brave and articulate call for resistance to religious totalitarianism.
[…] we call for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values worldwide.
The necessity of these universal values has been revealed by events since the publication of the Muhammad drawings in European newspapers. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the arena of ideas. What we are witnessing is not a clash of civilizations, nor an antagonism of West versus East, but a global struggle between democrats and theocrats.
Well, now they are getting death threats. The UK Muslim forum ummah.com had this message on one of their threads:
now we have drawn out a hit list of a ‘Who’s Who’ guide to slam into. Take you time but make sure their gone soon- oh and don’t hold out for a fatwah it isn’t really required here.
Has anyone got that Christian kaffir ‘Ibn Warraq’s’ real name yet?
The thread has now been pulled by moderators. “Can’t have threats being made on a public board” apparently. But you can see it here. The author of the original threat, who goes by the name of Abu Hurairah, is still active on the forums.
Clever way to show you are not a violent totalitarian.
Irshad Manji is fighting back:
Unlike daily threats, this one comes from a place of ‘authority,’ since ummah.com has a large, radical following. That’s why the Manifesto signatories need you to fight back with us. If you support freedom, pluralism and secularism, click here and put your name on our petition. We’ll publish the petition in the coming days.
It’s an email petition. This is what it says:
I wish to express my unequivocal support for the twelve signatories and my outrage at the Islamist movement’s attack on them. I stand firm with the 12 against this reactionary movement. I join in their call to resist religious totalitarianism and to promote freedom, equal opportunity, human rights and secular values for all.
Can’t argue with that.
(Thanks to Bartholomew’s Notes)
Very saddening. I’m going to forward this tale to the March for Free Expression organisers if you don’t mind. Men and women do not deserve death threats for going against the grain of popular opinion, whether they be critical of a particular religion or government. The treatment being meted out to these twelve authors is a fine example of why we should all be standing up in favour of free speech, letting these thugs know that threats of violence (even under the banner of “defending one’s religion”) are totally unacceptable.
Interestingly, the Muslim Action Committee (MAC) who are calling for a new age of civility (i.e. “Thou shalt not say nasty things about religion”) have taken issue with the march and are organising their own counter-demonstrations.
See here , hereand here.
An interesting development.
Incidentally, I see you have an advert for the March on your front-page – would you be interested in helping out further? It needn’t be much. Even something as simple as blogs organising a meet-up for their readers at the demo would be great. My email should be at the bottom of this post, but otherwise you can contact Peter or Patrick at:
marchforfreespeech_NO_SPAM@googlemail.com (removing the obvious bits).
Thanks for your support!
Dan
And – lets guess …
Are our wonderful police and politicians doing anything about this public incitement to murder?
Of course not, they’re too busy appeasing the “muslim community”….