Puteri’s World

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia –Malaysia has banned 11 books for allegedly giving a false portrayal of Islam, such as by linking the religion to terrorism and the mistreatment of women, an official said Wednesday.

The government ordered the books - most of them released by U.S. publishers - to be blacklisted earlier this month “because they are not in line with what we call the Malaysian version of Islam,” said Che Din Yusoh, an official with the Internal Security Ministry’s publications control unit.

“Some of them ridicule Islam as a religion, or the facts are wrong about Islam, like associating Islam with terrorism … or saying Islam mistreats women,” he said. “Once you mention something which is not correct, it’s not proper.”

Full story here.

One of the banned books is called Islam Unveiled by Robert Spencer. That book has been translated into the Malay language and according to Spencer that book is still available in Indonesia.

What I find galling is the Malaysian Internal Security Ministry’s admission that the books were banned because “they are not in line with what we call the Malaysian version of Islam.”

That mindset is so typical of the Malay Muslim dominated Malaysian government. Instead of debating and arguing against the “false portrayal of Islam” they have instead chosen to suppress any views that they are not in line with theirs.

These 11 books are only the latest in the growing list of banned books in Malaysia.

What a crying shame!

The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas.The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.
William O. Douglas

In an earlier post called Challenges to Free Speech, I mentioned how Mark Steyn, noted columnist has had to face charges of offending Muslims and proceedings against him brought by the The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.

In his column entitled The Right to be Offended which was a response to the proceedings against him, Mark Steyn says of his defence when asked about it: My defence is I shouldn’t have to have a defence.

How right he is. Which part of his article was an abuse of human rights to the complainants? None whatsoever, except that his article caused some people to be “offended” which was nothing more than a thin skinned emotional response to a phrase that wasn’t even originally Steyn’s.

I fear for the slippery slope that Canada is fast slipping on. Political correctness and the slow but obvious chipping away of free speech is going to be the death of the country.

What a shame that is.

A story based on the Three Little Pigs fairy tale has been turned by a government agency’s awards panel as the subject matter could offend Muslims.The digital book, re-telling the classic story, was rejected by judges who warned that “the use of pigs raises cultural issues”.Becta, the government’s educational technology agency, is a leading partner in the annual Bett Award for schools.

Full story here.

This is simply a case of sheer stupidity of the proponents of multi-culturalism.

Three Little Pigs is now offensive? If one were to follow that line of reasoning, British TV and publication can now never refer to anything that has to do with pigs, pork, bacon, ham? Because they all refer to a subject matter that is “haram” to the group of people that may be offended?

Does that mean also that movies like “Babe”, “Gorky” and even the children television series like Jakers, because they all feature pigs? And classics like Animal Farm will never be used in the public schools again because there are pigs in that book?

The British government should get over the fact that no matter what, people are going to be offended over every little thing. There is no reason for them to give special deference to one particular group of people while ignoring others.

Sheer stupidity, indeed!

Following up on my earlier post about whether freedom of expression should exclude the right to offend certain groups of people, Canada, the western country that she is, has shown herself willing to limit the meaning of freedom of expression.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal have begun proceedings against Mark Steyn, well-known author and columnist. His offence? For using language considered “Islamophobic”.

In his book, America Alone, Mark Steyn used a phrase “The number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes”! The Canadian Islamic Congress was offended by the phrase and their complaints have resulted in proceedings again Mark Steyn by The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. The thing about the words that Mark Steyn used were not even his! He was repeating a phrase that came from Mullah Krekar, a jihadist who currently resides in Norway.

All I can say is political correctness by Canadians is only going to lead to their downfall. The following video sums up what the wider implications of the proceedings against Mark Steyn are going to be. You allow a small group to chip away at your freedom of speech, they will only come back to chip away more of it.