No Free Speech For Islam Critics

If advocates of free speech forbid the criticism of Islam, are they truly in favor of free speech?

No Free Speech For Islam Critics

by Anne Marie Waters

The British journalist Toby Young is the front face of a new free speech campaign group just launched in the UK. Young presents as being on the conservative right, and has defended feminist writers, including Julie Bindel and Germaine Greer, both of whom were “deplatformed” for their radical view that a woman doesn’t have a penis.

The Free Speech Union claims on its website it “believes that if society doesn’t uphold the right to express controversial, eccentric, heretical, provocative or unwelcome opinions, then it doesn’t uphold free speech.”

Quite. So why then doesn’t Toby Young believe in the right to express controversial, eccentric, heretical, provocative or unwelcome opinions about religion? Because he doesn’t, as he has made clear. When questioned as to whether Tommy Robinson could join the union, Young batted the question away (it would be a matter for the board!) and then began to virtual-signal. In essence, he said the union would not tolerate criticism of a person because of their sex (agreed), or because of their skin colour (agreed), or because of their religion (no, that’s entirely different).

Religion is belief, and a person is answerable for what they believe. What they believe constitutes a large part of who they are, and as adults they are accountable for it. I maintain that free speech means criticism of the ideas people propagate, and, by extension, criticism of that person for propagating such ideas. This applies whether the beliefs are political or religious.

The Union goes on to state: “We take no position on the validity of others’ opinions, political or otherwise, whether expressed in speech, writing, performance, or in another form. However, we condemn all incitements to violence.”

But they have taken a position: they will not criticise religion. Or, doubtless more accurately, they will not criticise Islam. Islam remains untouchable, even by an organisation founded to fight for free speech. The fear of Islam in the UK is once again on show for all to see.

It isn’t only fear of Islam itself that causes this; it is fear of the law and fear of the Left. The law will punish those who are critical of Islam in the UK. This sharia-isation of the law means that while gang-rape and child marriage and FGM continue unimpeded, insulting Islam is more likely to bring the police to your door.

The most imminent threat, however, is from the Left. Toby Young must know that if he were to practice actual free speech (i.e. the freedom to criticise Islam), he would be accused of “hate” and his mainstream platform would disappear.

Furthermore, Young has no restriction on his speech. He enjoys regular mainstream media slots. If he allowed criticism of Islam, those slots would evaporate.

While Young has unfettered access to social media, I have had my Twitter account closed for criticising South Yorkshire Police (the account was heavily shadow-banned in any case, and my number of follower would drop on a daily basis). My view numbers on YouTube dropped by 60% overnight; I am now censored there as well.

Worse still, I am routinely described as a neo-Nazi or fascist by the mainstream press and am never given a mainstream right of reply. Wikipedia portrays me as both a monster and an idiot. I am unable to respond on that platform. Toby Young is backing off from criticising Islam because he doesn’t want this to happen to him.

I am of course not the only one. Critics of Islam routinely find that they are cut off from basic services such as PayPal or high street banking. My party has suffered this time and again, and it is because we are critical of Islam.

In all but name, therefore, we are living in a sharia society.

For Britain is the party I founded, with the most wonderful people beside me, because I believe that we will either accept sharia quietly, or we will fight back — and that means fighting back against the entire system. We have to fight back against the media, big tech, politicised police, and of course the mainstream political narrative that to express opposition to Islam is “racism”.

Our fight back is not a violent one, and it is not antagonism or attack; it is merely our unbending commitment to standing by the truth. We will simply repeat the truth again and again. What I say about Islam is true. What I say about the ‘trans’ madness, or the censorship on climate change, or the political correctness that still allows gangs of Muslims to rape little girls, is the truth. I will continue to say what is true, to point out the reality in front of us, regardless of the onslaught it incurs. I cannot retreat on that.

My party has faced countless obstacles since our foundation, but we are becoming expert at overcoming them. We are now just over two years old. I’m proud to say that we won seats in our very first local elections, and indeed achieved major party status at the Electoral Commission. We did this while still putting the machinery of the party in place (which is no mean feat!), so now that we are far more structured, with a clear aim and manifesto, we are ready to move on to our next phase: winning more local seats, building from the ground up, and moving on to Parliamentary seats when we are more widely known.

It is a sensible strategy that will provide the party with firm foundations on which to build.

However, to succeed — and we will — we need members, donors, friends. Our manifesto is clear and concise and it is exactly the manifesto Great Britain is waiting for. It covers the issues mainstream politicians are afraid to touch.

We are a united and determined party that, while still small at this stage, is ready to grow and grow.

We’ve achieved truly great things, help us to achieve more. Spread the word. Donate. Join.

You can read our manifesto and join our party at www.forbritain.uk.

Thank you.

­— Anne Marie Waters

Anne Marie Waters is the founder of Sharia Watch UK, a former UKIP candidate for Parliament, and the leader of For Britain.

Previous posts:

2013   Jul   13   Islam Is Not A Peaceful Religion
2014   Apr   25   Sharia Watch UK Launched in House of Lords
    May   10   Sharia Watch UK Website
    Sep   2   Britain’s Principal Export: Islam
    Oct   20   Ave MARIAS
        21   “No More Will We Tolerate This!”
2015   Jan   23   Freedom of Speech and the Nauseating Hypocrisy of the Left
    Jul   7   The Motoons Come to London on September 18
        10   It’s Time to Take a Stand
    Aug   4   Anne Marie Waters and Paul Weston on the London Motoons Event
        7   Anne Marie Waters: Response to Ridiculous Claims of HnH
    Sep   18   The State of Free Speech in Europe in 2015
    Dec   30   Rotherham: The Perfect Storm
2016   Jan   24   Anne Marie Waters in Copenhagen: “How Dare You Unleash That on European Women?”
    Mar   8   Anne Marie Waters on Virtue-Signaling by the Lying Media
    Apr   12   Feminists Need to Know — Islam Kills Women
    Jul   25   Anne Marie Waters: An Appeal for Two Minutes of Your Time
        28   Islam Kills Women
    Nov   15   BBC — Tell the Truth About Sharia Law
2017   May   27   Post Manchester, There Needs to be Leadership For Britain
 

15 thoughts on “No Free Speech For Islam Critics

  1. I don’t know how anyone could put things more succinctly: “Religion is belief, and a person is answerable for what they believe.”

    Does any intelligent liberal have a genuine counter-argument for this? If so, I’d like to know what it is.

  2. Beards and garb. Mosques hate preachers and halal. All over hospitals, food and where once was hygiene. The attitudes of Nazis strolling around a surrendered territory. Where is all this going? A great fight for freedom?

  3. What about criticism of Christendom? Is not the Church of England offered the same immunity (from the degradation of heathens) as the politically correct permissiveness afforded to the 6th Century morays of Britain’s invaders??

  4. From what I see and hear the London government is now third world wog. From Boris and his arrogant Muslim to Priti Patel slave trader out of East Africa. Choices will soon be stark. Pure unadulterated local European versus Pakistani and the likes . Do it or be done. Imagining of course I imagine the reality is much starker.

  5. I used to listen to James Delingpole on “Ricochet” and invariably his guest was Toby Young. If Young were in the US, he would be a in the mold of The Bushes, McCain and Romney – almost totally RINO.

    Here is Toby Young recently in “The Spectator”

    “There aren’t five stages of grief following a big political defeat, just two. Anger, followed swiftly by the enthusiastic embrace of all your enemy’s beliefs.”

    Did you get that? So if Trump loses to Bernie Sanders we are all going to embrace Socialism? Young is weak, Soy Boy jackass.

  6. I sit here and chuckle and shaking my head in disbelief that we have fallen this far. The very civilization that gave us the Magna Carta and our very own US Constitution now being bastardized to being less than the paper it is written upon. We, and I mean every one of us in Europe and the US and Canada allowed ourselves to be fooled by these destroyers of nations and western civilization with thunderous applause and more free stuff.
    What comes now is entirely predictable, the money runs out and civil war begins due to a whole host of factors that will change what we will become. The elites in their great all knowing thinking and actions will not survive the Great Purges that are coming, even though they truly believe they will rule over the rubble of their own making. The politicians in their wishful thinking and treasonous actions will also not survive nor any of their wretched families and other various hangers on. The leftist useful idiots will find out in short order that it is not nice to mess with mother nature as they find reality is quite horrific from their wishful thinking and indoctrinated unicorn dreams as we go completely tribal as we side with neighbors, friends and relatives that look just like us because our very survival will depend upon it.
    What we will get as all the fun and games play out is the most ruthless and strongest will rule, a sort of Return to the Kings and Military Rulers of the 19th and early 20th Centuries, who will consolidate their power and territories with absolute ruthless abandon. Democracy in it’s current form of what we all grew up with and admired will be a thing of the past. For the people in the end deserve to be ruled, because they allowed it to happen with reckless abandon. It is now too late to change course and anyone with any lick of sense and a understanding of history can see it as well. So if all of you folks reading this today are not armed up and prepared, you deserve the cold, cruel, brutal, harsh reality of the coming bad times ahead.

  7. ” In essence, he said the union would not tolerate criticism of a person because of their sex (agreed), or because of their skin colour (agreed), or because of their religion (no, that’s entirely different).”

    Ah…Does that mean that if I wish to discuss the opinion that there are measurable, significant differences between the way men think and the way women think, or if I wish to discuss stable and probably genetic differences between races, that it is OK with Anne Marie Waters that any organization she is affiliated with, would expel me from their membership and platform?

    If so, then she wishes to extend freedom of criticism to Islam, a religion she quite understandably dislikes, but not to discussion of other ideas she holds sacred.

    I probably shouldn’t be picking on someone who is risking much and putting herself at risk, in reputation and probably in person, to rescue Britain from the existential threats of Islam and globalism. And yet, truth is truth, and things may be more connected than at first seems apparent. For example, some people believe that women, as a group, react more emotionally than men, and are thus more easily manipulated to support the sanctuary need of ragged-looking refugees.

    Now, this may or may not be true. The proper approach is to debate the question freely, just like the proper approach to importing Muslims is to debate the pros and cons freely. But, should we be in the position of claiming there are certain assertions we should not allow, even if discussion of Islam is not one of them?

  8. “You can read our manifesto and join our party at http://www.forbritain.uk.”

    I thought a “manifesto” was a one-page statement. I was wrong; see
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto
    (“The Communist Manifesto is divided into a preamble and four sections.”)

    Taking a look at this “For Britain” manifesto, we see the page https://www.forbritain.uk/
    on which clicking on “VIEW PLAN” on various topics leads to the same page:
    https://www.forbritain.uk/issues/

    All is says about sharia is “To openly and truthfully discuss Islam and its impact in British society”. Just what a dawah artist would say. So this political party is pro-sharia, right?
    The bigger turn-off is the imposition of text on a picture, making it hard to read.

  9. In para. 4, Waters uses the personal pronoun “they” and not “he” to agree with ” a person”. This is a mainstream feminist development in English over the last few years.

    It kowtows to the allegation that women are otherwise rendered invisible in the language and avoids the awkwardness of “his or her” .

    I wonder if Waters is aware of her own words and what she would say if challenged on it. That Arabic is even more gendered? Or that Thatcher and Killary were and are improvements on their male equivalents?

    With few exceptions, mainstream feminists are Islamophile or neutral: in the UK; about 70% of UK Muslims vote Labour according to the FT of a few years back. Fake Left parties such as British Labour are historically feminist-friendly.

    So does ex-UKIP Waters consciously signal to mainstream feminists that she too rejects their “lingusitic oppression”?

  10. I know that Anne Marie speaks the truth. I am also proud to be a member of her fine party that has the true mark of destiny, a party that will preserve the best of our beloved traditions and inheritance, For Britain. Four generations of my family fought and suffered for all we have. And now we are fighting for the future, and Anne Marie leads the way.

  11. With the collapse of Labour and Ukip, there is an opportunity for smaller parties to gain ground. The timing is right. Good fortune!

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