Liberty Alone

Remember those Muhammed cartoons which caused such a fuss a while back? Well, the fallout continues.

In Alberta, Canada, Ezra Levant has been hauled up before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for publishing the cartoons in the Western Standard.

This is not a judicial proceeding. It has none of the safeguards which protect the accused.

What is his crime? Offending someone. Not actually harming someone, not even calling for someone to be harmed, just offending someone.

My view is that the only time the state can legitimately intervene in freedom of expression directly is if in the course of that expression someone is unwillingly harmed. Otherwise the state has no role.
Indirect sanctions by the state could possibly be brought if conspiracy to cause harm can be shown - for example by persuading someone to harm another. In that case however, intent would need to be shown.

In this case, none of that applies, yet a man is being brought to trial outside the legal system, for offending someone. That is abuse of the power of the commission. It goes against the very things the commission was set up to protect and rule upon.

It is disgusting that such extrajudicial trials can take place in a Western country, even without the assault of freedom of speech.

Islam has a long tradition of liberal thought, including Ibn Khaldun.
Today, we only really hear of the extremists and militants, the state sponsored violence in the Middle East and the extremist terrorists who use Islam as an excuse get all the press.

I was heartened to read an article by Michael Totten on TCS about a liberal Shia cleric in Lebanon - Sayyed Mohammad Ali El Husseini.

Here is a cleric who talks of peace and tolerance, who opposes dictatorship on the most liberal of grounds - it is simply a form of violence.
He has been threatened by Hezbollah and Iran, local journalists will not interview him because of the threat to their safety, but he keeps on preaching peace and tolerance.