Why I’m fed up with free speech fundamentalists

Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk

By: Mehdi Hasan

Dear liberal pundit,

You and I didn’t like George W Bush. Remember his puerile declaration after 9/11 that “either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists”? Yet now, in the wake of another horrific terrorist attack, you appear to have updated Dubya’s slogan: either you are with free speech… or you are against it. Either vous êtes Charlie Hebdo… or you’re a freedom-hating fanatic.

I’m writing to you to make a simple request: please stop. You think you’re defying the terrorists when, in reality, you’re playing into their bloodstained hands by dividing and demonising. Us and them. The enlightened and liberal west v the backward, barbaric Muslims. The massacre in Paris on 7 January was, you keep telling us, an attack on free speech. The conservative former French president Nicolas Sarkozy agrees, calling it “a war declared on civilisation”. So, too, does the liberal-left pin-up Jon Snow, who crassly tweeted about a “clash of civilisations” and referred to “Europe’s belief in freedom of expression”.

Gaza crisis: Israel attacks ‘not accidental’, claims UN (Video)

 The strikes by Israel’s military on UN buildings in Gaza “do not appear to be accidental”, the UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has said. Ms Pillay also called for international law with “appropriate investigation, prosecution and punishment” to be applied to the incidents. The Israeli military have said they will investigate the incidents but that they have a policy of not targeting civilians.

Since 8 July, 1,390 Palestinians have been killed – most of them civilians – according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Some 58 Israelis have been killed, of which 56 were soldiers and two civilians.