The BBC discussed the charges of Islamophobia against conservative author and columnist Mark Steyn today.
Mark Steyn is a writer with a zest for vigorous polemic says the Beeb. (photo flapsblog and BBC)
The case against Mark Steyn goes something like this:
In December 2007, complaints were filed against Maclean’s after the Canadian weekly news magazine published a cover article by Mark Steyn, “The Future Belongs to Islam”.. A complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission was made by Osgoode Law School students associated with the Canadian Islamic Congress. Further complaints to the British Columbian and federal Human Rights Commissions were lodged by Dr Mohamed Elmasry and Naiyer Habib of the Canadian Islamic Congress The complaints claimed that Maclean’s published a series of nineteen articles (8 written by Steyn and 7 by friend Barbara Amiel) with characteristics that promoted Islamophobia and that Maclean’s simulaneously refused to allow representative Muslim organizations and voices to rebut the anti-Muslim and Islamophobic content of its articles, particularly Steyn’s “The Future belongs to Islam”. Steyn reported on 1st March 2008 that the Ontario Human Rights Commission had declined to hear the suit against Maclean’s. The federal and British Columbian complaints were still unresolved as of March 2008.
Please take the time and read the BBC article about attack on freedom of speech by the Canadian Government.
Best line:
“The complainants against both Maclean’s and Mr Levant, in BBC interviews, professed their attachment to free speech and abhorrence of radical Islam.”
… That doesn’t even make sense–
Of course they are against freedom of speech or they wouldn’t be bringing charges against Mark Steyn.