In 2008, when the Canadian Islamic Congress attempted to criminalize my writing, we heard a lot of the usual hooey (courtesy of that eugenicist crackpot Oliver Wendell Holmes) that there was no right to shout fire in a crowded theatre. On the very last day of the trial in Vancouver, my old friend Julian Porter, QC summed up thus:
Against the argument that you cannot cry fire in a crowded theatre: Oh yes you can — you must, if in your considered view there is a fire. In that case there is a duty to cry fire.
The satirists of Charlie Hebdo thought there was a fire, and therefore considered they had a duty to cry fire. And they were right: There is a fire - in the expanding no-go areas of les banlieues, in the routine Jew-hate on the streets of Paris and Toulouse and other French cities, in the ranks of "mentally ill" "lone wolves" yelling "Allahu Akbar!" while mowing down pedestrians and stabbing policemen...
So they cried fire and were killed. And because they were rewarded for their honesty and bravery with death, more craven types in the politico-media class will find it easier to opt for cowardice and dishonesty. And so the fire will rage on, until it consumes us all.
I discussed some of that with Megyn Kelly on Fox News. You can see the interview here. As Breitbart News noted, I was not impressed by the so-called solidarity with the dead:
I see all these teary candlelit vigils and everyone suddenly claiming to be for freedom of speech. I think a consequence of this is a lot of people will retreat even further into self-censorship. The New York Daily News ...dishonors the dead in Paris by not even showing properly the cartoons. They pixelated Muhammad out of, it so it looks like Muhammad is in the witness protection program.
Here's how The Daily Caller reported my appearance:
Free speech proponent Mark Steyn scolded Western media on "The Kelly File" for being all bark and no bite in support of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo following a brutal terrorist attack Wednesday that left 12 dead.
Steyn told Megyn Kelly the Western media needs to "man up" and not "retreat even further into self-censorship" in the aftermath of the massacre in Paris. The Canadian columnist also laid blame at the feet of the media for the killings, saying Charlie Hebdo was "forced to bear a burden" that other, more prominent outlets should have shared.
Indeed I did:
STEYN: Yes, they were very brave. This was the only publication that was willing to publish the Muhammad — the Danish Muhammad cartoons in 2006 because they decided to stand by those Danish cartoonists. I'm proud to have written for the only Canadian magazine to publish those Muhammad cartoons. And it's because The New York Times didn't and because Le Monde in Paris didn't, and the London Times didn't and all the other great newspapers of the world didn't - only Charlie Hebdo and my magazine in Canada and a few others did. But they were forced to bear a burden that should have been more widely dispersed...
We will be retreating into a lot more self-censorship if the pansified Western media doesn't man up and decide to disburse the risk so they can't kill one small, little French satirical magazine. They've gotta kill all of us.
Newsmax reported my contempt for President Obama's contribution to this civilizational struggle:
Steyn also quoted President Barack Obama's United Nations speech after the Benghazi, Libya, attack, in which he said, "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."
Obama, Steyn said, "talked the talk. These savage murdering fanatics in Paris today walked the walk. So, words matter."
You can see my interview with Megyn here. My initial reaction to the slaughter is here. On Thursday, I'll have more to say on the matter, with Hugh Hewitt on the radio and Sean Hannity on TV.
UPDATE: The fire rages on:
Female police officer shot dead in Paris and street cleaner injured by 'North African wielding assault rifle and wearing bullet-proof vest'
Meanwhile, the she-shouldn't-have-worn-such-a-short-skirt narrative grows. And, of course, it wouldn't be an Islamic atrocity without the instant Muslims-fear-backlash palate-cleanser. From The New York Times:
Anti-immigrant attitudes have been on the rise in recent years in Europe, propelled in part by a moribund economy and high unemployment, as well as increasing immigration and more porous borders.
Thank goodness for the Times. Otherwise, you might have thought these "anti-immigrant attitudes" might have been "propelled" by fellows killing people while yelling "Allahu Akbar!"
The weepy passive candlelight vigils - the maudlin faux tears and the Smug Moral Preening overdose - aren't enough. If you don't want to put out the fire, it will burn your world to the ground.
