College Republican Federation of Virginia

On Friday, LiveLeak took down Fitna, the movie by conservative Dutch MP Gert Wilders that has caused much rage among Islamists and their apologists, from their website.  Citing serious but anonymous threats against their employees and misleading news reports from Britain (?) LiveLeak has replaced the video with a three-slide apology lamenting the damage done to free speech on the Internet.  Sadly, it appears the pre-emptive rage surrounding this film has won the day for the Islamists.  This is the definition of cowardice, the quick capitulation in the face of difficult circumstances. 

 Where is the supposed courage of left-wing defenders of free speech?  Where are those courageous Feminists and their bra-fueled fires?  Where are those courageous porn-stars standing up for their Constitutional protections?  Where is the ACLU?  As usual, all of them are notoriously absent.  Frightened into submission by the crazed rhetoric of barbaric religious fanatics.  Companies like LiveLeak, Yahoo, Google, and YouTube are quickly becoming the Chamberlain’s of the Internet; all too willing to appease the agents of hatred and evil in exchange for the illusion of peace and cooperation. 

This appeasement is cowardly and absurd and it must stop.  Those Muslims who do not subscribe to the Islamists’ maniacal dogma should stop pretending to be offended every time someone speaks up against it.  Groups such as CAIR and others must pick sides, either you’re one of these Islamist totalitarians or you’re not.  You can’t have it both ways, it is the height of naivete to try.  The Islamists themselves reject such a middle ground, calling instead for the replacement of civil society with Islamic jurisprudence and social prescription. 

The Islamist ideology is one which denies the God-given right of people to live freely in societies of their own construction.  It rejects the God-given right of people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It rejects the fundamental principle that people are free to live their lives as they see fit, to chart their own course and captain their own destiny.  It rejects the freedom of speech, petition, press, assembly, and of course religion.  It rejects the illegitimacy of governmental authority in these areas.  It rejects the primacy of personal freedom.

 Islamism replaces these fundamental freedoms and principles with an austere, repressive religious dogma that is as fanatical as it is authoritarian.  An ideology that replaces free elections with religious edicts.  An ideology that replaces the free and personal religious experience with one that is lorded over by totalitarian theological authorities who replace personal commitments with official commands.  An ideology which dismantles popular sovereignty and replaces it with a particular tyranny. 

 All those who value freedom and liberty must reject this ideology emphatically.  There is no room in a free society for the insidious evil of oppression and terror.  This is no tyranny of the majority.  It is no outbreak of xenophobia or intolerance.  It is the affirmation of the God-given right of people to rule absolutely in their own societies.  It is the unequivocal rejection of those who seek to usurp that right through violence and intimidation. 

Lament the cowardice of LiveLeak, but do not pity them.  Instead, do what they would not.  Watch this movie, share it with friends.  Post it, host it, translate it, proliferate it.  Remember, freedom will not die from the thunderous force of arms, but from the insidious quiet of comfortable capitulation.