Well, as reported yesterday, Dutch politician Geert Wilders released his long-awaited anti-Islam movie Fitna. During the run-up to the movie, his website for it was preemptively suspended based on the idea that the movie "might" be against the hosting services Terms of Service.
Ultimately, the movie was hosted by Liveleak. Today, Liveleak pulled it, due to very specific, detailed death threats against it's staff members.
Here's Liveleaks statement:
Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.
This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realised LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.
Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers culture.
We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.
What I gather happened was that various British newspapers actually printed the names and addresses of Liveleak staffers. Needless to say, lots of very pointed death threats followed.
So I don't blame Liveleak, but that is just an example of how radical Islam is anti-speech.
Where are the progressives or leftists in any nation championing the idea "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it?" Just yesterday, on this very site, the prominent diary on this basically called for the censorship of this movie as "hate speech." Sadly, not many disagreed. Some did, for which I'm grateful.
It's not just the DailyKos. The UN also condemned the movie: http://edition.cnn.com/...
I thought freedom of speech was a fundamental human right? I don't see the UN condemning Hezbollah or Iran's "Let's kill all the Jews" speech. Yet they go out of their way to condemn something critical of Islam? Double standard, anyone?
Is any criticism of Islam "hate speech?" I can think of plenty of stuff said about Christians and much worse said about Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others that people don't say is "hate speech." If I said something about how Mormons are all child rapists, I would not be in fear of my life. Yet, any accurate observation that Iran, under it's Islamic rulers executes women and homosexuals is "hate speech" and I'm to be silenced?
Will we see more riots, killings, etc? Or should we all just say that Islam is off limits unless we praise it? Or do we just have to live with the idea that saying anything critical of Islam is taking your life into your hands?
For the record, here is a link to Fitna, the movie some Islamists will try to kill to prevent you from seeing. http://www.youtube.com/...
Any guesses as to how long it will stay up?
Edit: I'm not finding anything about why Liveleak is referring to British Newspapers irresponsibility. So it's not a confirmed statement that they published names and addresses. I'll leave it in the post so as to keep the original version.
I suspect we'll find out more about these mysterious British misdeeds.