I may or may not provide more information about which organizations shunned me, but I do want to explain why it is so important for all of us to support each other in this war against our way of life.
The main thing that
we must recognize is the motivation behind those who would censor our freedom of
expression. The motivation is to have the West submit to Islam. Understanding that is
the essence of understanding that the West must be uniform in its defence of
freedom of expression. Accordingly, Robert Tracinski, writing in The Intellectual Activist, calls on every
publisher to rally around the Danish newspaper by publishing the cartoons
themselves:
“This is not merely a symbolic expression of
support; it is a practical countermeasure against censorship.
Censorship—especially the violent, anarchic type threatened by Muslim
fanatics—is effective only when it can isolate a specific victim, making him
feel as if he alone bears the brunt of the danger. What intimidates an artist or
writer is not simply some Arab fanatic in the street carrying a placard that
reads "Behead those who insult Islam." What intimidates him is the feeling that,
when the beheaders come after him, he will be on his own, with no allies or
defenders—that everyone else will be too cowardly to stick their necks out.
“The answer, for publishers, is to
tell the Muslim fanatics that they can't single out any one author, or artist,
or publication. The answer is to show that we're all united in defying the
fanatics.
“That's what it means to show
"solidarity" by re-publishing the cartoons. The message we need to send is: if
you want to kill anyone who publishes those cartoons, or anyone who makes
cartoons of Mohammed, then you're going to have to kill us all. If you make war
on one independent mind, you're making war on all of us. And we'll fight
back.”
Alas, Mr.
Tracinski’s call fell on deaf ears. Most newspapers refrained from publishing
any of the cartoons. We should be very careful. Our precious freedom of
expression is like a tall tree. Although its roots are deep, each successful
attack on it represents another blow of a sharp axe to the base of the tree:
too many blows of the axe will eventually bring it down. And when that tree
comes down, how long before someone starts chopping at the next tree in our
forest of fundamental freedoms?
And so, dear readers, this ties us into the story of Ezra Levant who, in his now-defunct Western Standard magazine had the courage to do what Mr. Tracinski advocated, and has paid a terrible price for it. That is why we must all support Mr. Levant, and why none of us, must be made to feel that we are isolated and on our own agains this enemy of freedom.