In response to Fitna, the much anticipated short-film released by Geert Wilders earlier this week (which we posted on our site here, although Liveleak has since removed the video after threats were made against members of their staff), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had this to say:
"We must also recognize that the real fault line is not between Muslim and Western societies, as some would have us believe, but between small minorities of extremists, on different sides, with a vested interest in stirring hostility and conflict."
Where is this small minority of extremists on our side of the fence? If Ban is talking about Wilders, and it appears that he is, then he draws an outrageous and false equivalence. Admittedly drawing outrageous false equivalences is the UN's trademark, but comparing a mediocre 15-minute film to the attack on the World Trade Center pushes things to a ludicorus extreme. Hot Air notes the irony of Ban's characterization of the film as "offensively anti-Islamic" given that Article 19 of the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights states:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
This is unequivocal, and yet Ban's criticism plainly seeks to inhibit Wilders's freedom to hold opinions and to impart those opinions through the media. And where are the left's free speech advocates? I don't see even a mention of the film at any of my favorite lefty blogs.
