Last week a colleague at work explained to me that when the right-wing types needed a new enemy after the cold war was over, they settled on Islam, but this was a mistake since there's no plausible threat from Islamic countries.
I paused for a moment, not wanting to let my churning brain rush ahead of me and not wanting to do one of my typical head-exploding responses that just turn people off. Should I launch into tirades about the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, or the physical and mental mutilation endured by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and millions of women like her, or the formerly modern states brought to ruin by the imposition of Islamic law, known as Sharia law?
Finally I decided to call on events close to home, and said something like, "Ah yeah, but you know, I'm kind of concerned about the fact that Canada has been toying with Sharia law."
He hadn't heard anything about this. It's understandable -- the encroachment of Sharia law on Western countries is only one of the biggest and most relevant stories of our time, but after all we're talking about something happening in Canada, and who the hell pays attention to Canada?
Well, Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant do, since they both live (or lived) in Canada and have had the singular honor of being hauled in front of the Human Rights Commission there for daring to say things Muslims might not like to hear.
Levant dared to publish those pesky cartoons that Muslims were rioting and killing people over, as I discussed in some detail here.
He has now written a book on how the Human Rights Commission has terrorized numerous people in Canada for their disruptive and offensive points of view (though never, oddly, any Muslim for offending Jews or others), called Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights. I've pre-ordered my copy.
Below are YouTube segments for an hour interview Levant did on the Michael Coren show in 2004, when his problems with the HRC were hitting the fan. Of related interest, Michael Coren twice plays an excerpt from a Muslim on his show the week before. Pay attention to this part, as it plays a role in my next post, on Mark Steyn.
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