THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 16, January 16, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
MARK STEYN IS NOT ALONE
By Brooke M. Goldstein
ISLAMIST "LAWFARE": THE CAMPAIGN OF LEGAL ACTIONS DESIGNED TO PUNISH & SILENCE THOSE WHO SPEAK
OUT AGAINST ISLAMISM, ISLAMIC TERRORISM, & THE SOURCES OF FINANCING OF MILITANT ISLAM & THE
INTERNATIONAL JIHADIST TERROR NETWORK & ITS ACTIVITIES -- USE BY ISLAMISTS OF THE COURTS & LIBEL LAWS OF
CANADA, GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, ITALY, SWITZERLAND, & THE U.S.A. TO SUPRESS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, ABOLISH
PUBLIC DISCOURSE CRITICAL OF ISLAM & ISLAMISM, & ESTABLISH PRINCIPLES OF SHARIA LAW IN THOSE COUNTRIES --
ISLAMISTS SUBJECTING TO FRIVOLOUS & COSTLY LAWSUITS LOYAL CITIZENS WHO TALK TO OTHER LOYAL CITIZENS &
PROVIDE THEM WITH INFORMATION ABOUT ISSUES OF NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL SECURITY, THE WAR ON TERROR, &
THE GLOBAL ISLAMIST JIHAD BEING WAGED AGAINST THE WEST
FULL STORY:
Award-winning author Mark Steyn has been summoned to appear before two Canadian Human Rights Commissions on
vague allegations of "subject[ing] Canadian Muslims to hatred and contempt" and being "flagrantly Islamophobic" after
Maclean's magazine published an excerpt from his book, America Alone.
The public inquisition of Steyn has triggered outrage among Canadians and Americans who value free speech, but it
should not come as a surprise. Steyn's predicament is just the latest salvo in a campaign of legal actions designed to
punish and silence the voices of anyone who speaks out against Islamism, Islamic terrorism, or its sources of financing.
The Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), which initiated the complaint against Steyn, has previously tried unsuccessfully
to sue publications it disagrees with, including Canada's National Post. The not-for-profit organization's President,
Mohamed Elmasry, once labeled every adult Jew in Israel a legitimate target for terrorists and is in the habit of accusing
his opponents of anti-Islamism -- a charge that is now apparently an actionable claim in Canada. In 2006, after Elmasry
publicly accused a spokesman for the Muslim Canadian Congress of being anti-Islamic, the spokesman reportedly
resigned amidst fears for his personal safety.
The Islamist movement has two wings -- one violent and one lawful -- which operate apart, but often reinforce, each other.
While the violent arm attempts to silence speech by burning cars when cartoons of Mohammed are published, the lawful
arm is maneuvering within Western legal systems.
Islamists with financial means have launched a legal jihad, manipulating democratic court systems to suppress freedom of
expression, abolish public discourse critical of Islam, and establish principles of Sharia law. The practice, called "lawfare,"
is often predatory, filed without a serious expectation of winning, and undertaken as a means to intimidate and bankrupt
defendants.
Forum shopping, whereby plaintiffs bring actions in jurisdictions most likely to rule in their favor, has enabled a wave of
"libel tourism" that has resulted in foreign judgments against European authors, and now judgements against American
authors, judgements mandating the destruction of American-authored literary material.
At the time of her death in 2006, noted Italian author Orianna Fallaci was being sued in France, Italy, Switzerland and other
jurisdictions, sued by groups dedicated to preventing the dissemination of her work. With its "human rights" commissions,
Canada joins the list of countries, including France and the United Kingdom, whose laws are being used to attack the free
speech rights and due process protections afforded American citizens.
A major player on this front is Khalid bin Mahfouz, a wealthy Egyptian who resides in Saudi Arabia. Mahfouz has sued or
threatened to sue more than 30 publishers and authors in British courts, including several Americans, whose written works
have linked him to terrorist entities. A notable libel tourist, Mahfouz has taken advantage of the United Kingdom's
plaintiff-friendly libel laws to restrict the dissemination of written material that draws attention to Saudi-funded terrorism.
Faced with the prospect of protracted and expensive litigation, and regardless of the merit of the works, most authors and
publishers targeted have issued apologies and retractions, while some have paid fines and "contributions" to Mahfouz's
charities. When Mahfouz threatened Cambridge Press with a lawsuit for publishing Alms for Jihad by American
authors Robert Collins and J. Millard Burr, the publisher immediately capitulated, offered a public apology to Mahfouz,
pulped the unsold copies of the book, and took it out of print.
Shortly after Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It was published in the United States,
Mahfouz sued its author, anti-terrorism analyst and Director of the American Center for Democracy, Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld,
for alleging financial ties between wealthy Saudis, including Mahfouz, and terrorist entities such as al-Qa'ida. The
allegations against Ehrenfeld were heard by the United Kingdom court, despite the fact that neither Mahfouz nor Ehrenfeld
resides in England and merely because approximately 23 copies of Funding Evil were sold online to U.K. buyers via
Amazon.com.
Unwilling to travel to England or acknowledge the authority of English libel laws over herself and her work, Ehrenfeld lost
on default and was ordered to pay heavy fines, apologize, and destroy her books -- all of which she has refused to do.
Instead, Ehrenfeld counter-sued Mahfouz in a New York State court seeking to have the foreign judgment declared
unenforceable in the United States.
Ironically, Ehrenfeld lost her case against Mahfouz, because the New York court ruled it lacked jurisdiction over the Saudi
resident who, the court said, did not have sufficient connections to the State. Shortly afterwards, the Association of
American Publishers released a statement that criticized the ruling as a blow to intellectual freedom and "a deep
disappointment for publishers and other First Amendment advocates."
The litany of American publishers, television stations, authors, journalists, experts, activists, political figures, and citizens
targeted for censorship is long and merits brief mention. There is an obvious pattern to these suits that can only be ignored
at great peril. And we must expect future litigation along these lines:
Joe Kaufman, Chairman of Americans Against Hate, was served with a temporary restraining order and sued for leading a
peaceful and lawful ten person protest against the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) outside an event the group
sponsored at a Six Flags theme park in Texas. According to ICNA's website, the group is dedicated to "working for the
establishment of Islam in all spheres of life," and to "reforming society at large." The complaint included seven Dallas-area
plaintiffs who had never been previously mentioned by Kaufman, nor been present at the theme park. Litigation is ongoing.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) sued Andrew Whitehead, an American activist, for $1.3 million for
founding and maintaining the website Anti-CAIR-net.org, on which he lists CAIR as an Islamist organization with ties to
terrorist groups. After CAIR refused Whitehead's discovery requests, seemingly afraid of what internal documents the
legal process it had initiated would reveal, the lawsuit was dismissed by the court with prejudice.
CAIR also sued Cass Ballenger for $2 million after the then-U.S. Congressman said in a 2003 interview with the Charlotte
Observer that the group was a "fundraising arm for Hezbollah," which he had reported as such to the FBI and CIA.
Fortunately, the judge ruled that Ballenger's statements were made in the scope of his public duties and were protected
speech.
A Muslim police officer is suing former CIA official and counterterrorism consultant Bruce Tefft and the New York Police
Department for workplace harassment merely because Tefft sent emails with relevant news stories about Islamic terrorism to
a voluntary list of recipients that included police officers.
These suits represent a direct and real threat to our constitutional rights and national security. Even if the lawsuits don't
succeed, the continued use of lawfare tactics by Islamist organizations has the potential to create a detrimental chilling
effect on public discourse and information concerning the war on terror.
Already, publishers have canceled books on the subject of counterterrorism and, no doubt, other journalists and authors
have self-censored due to the looming threat of suit. For its part, CAIR announced an ambitious fundraising goal of $1
million, partly to "defend against defamatory attacks on Muslims and Islam." One of CAIR's staffers, Rabiah Ahmed,
bragged that lawsuits are increasingly an "instrument" for it to use.
U.S. courts have not yet grasped the importance of rebuffing international attempts to restrain the free speech rights of
American citizens.
This is troubling. The United States was founded on the premise of freedom of worship, but also on the principle of the
freedom to criticize religion. Islamists should not be allowed to stifle constitutionally protected speech, nor should they be
allowed to subject innocent citizens who talk to other citizens about issues of national security to frivolous and costly
lawsuits.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Correctness, Censorship, Thought Control:
Supression of Unacceptable Views & Opinions
Canada: America's Northern Neighbor & Ally
Britain -- The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland:
Mother Country & Close Ally of the United States of America
The Anglosphere -- The English-Speaking World:
The U.S.A., Britain, Canada, Australia, & New Zealand
Europe, European States, Politics, & Public Policy
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Brooke M. Goldstein is a practicing attorney, the Director of the Legal Project at the Middle East Forum, and the Director
of the Children's Rights Institute. She is also an award-winning film producer of The Making of a Martyr, an adjuct
fellow at the Hudson Institute, and the 2007 recipient of the E. Nathaniel Gates Award for Outstanding Public Advocacy.
The foregoing article by Brooke M. Goldstein was originally published in the American Spectator, January 15, 2008,
and can be found on the Internet website
maintained by the Middle East Forum, a think tank which seeks to define and
promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam, working for
Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote constitutional
democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly asserting U.S.
interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
January 16, 2008
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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