April Fool's and Free Speech

Now, my website gets about 1,000 of its pages looked at everybody, so it gets read by people other than my Mum. But to think that the three governments, the Catholic Church, the Pentecostal Church of New Zealand and various miscreants got together to take my site down is - perhaps - overstating its influence.

But hey, a lot of you out there didn't think so. Here are some of my favorite replies. The identity of the writers has been kept secret to protect the foolishness.

Death threats?! Jesus! From whom?

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, you can be pretty fiery when you want to. On the (very important) down side, death threats are terrifying. On the up side, it means you're getting some attention. Crikey. I signed your petition, too.

Good luck on this, eh? Let me know if there's anything more I can do to help.

Shit, man! You are very good to invite such effort from such a loser. Still, this is a violation and I feel very bad.

Signed the petition. Will certainly do something about this.

Question: Have you got all your files copied somewhere?

IMO their comments on your site makes THEM look stupid, desperate, and afraid... keep up the good fight, crazymalc!!!

And these are from the petition. I'm not sure if the petition will last forever, so I want to store them here for prosperity.

Please unblock Malcolm Trevena's website. He is an amazing person and there is no one else I know that cares more about the welfare of people than he does. Thank you.

this is a huge preach of his human right of free speech, and from expereince I know that much of what he says in regards to Ghana and CBW is true

Free speech should not be censored, plain and simple. If you are displeased with what has been said about your actions, perhaps it is your actions which should be evaluated. Personal opinions regarding those actions must be allowed free expression in keeping with Freedom of Speech, an important and long-standing International Law (see Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights). It is also absurd to accuse Mr. Trevena of human rights violations, as human rights is exactly what he's fighting for.

This is ludicrous! I know Malcolm to be an honest and passionate man - he speaks no "half truths" - only full ones (with a healthy dose of the opinion he is entitled as a human being). Claiming that his website commits human rights violations when it in fact condemns them is truly absurd. Taking the site down, on the other hand, IS a human rights violation. Put it back up, please.

i'm in shock that this can happen. there's so much crap on the internet! when we finally find a great, informative website it is taken from us.

And one Filipino activist friend of mine went so far as to spam his Human Rights group lists! Felt slightly (slightly) bad about that.

So, god bless each of every one of you for your concern.

And what about the rest of ya? You didn't think that death threats against me was worth signing a petition for?! (The death threats part was true by the way. Check this out).

But, after all this silliness let me put on my serious hat for a second. Free speech is important. Damn important.

Just take a look at this craziness happening over in Europe at the moment with the Fitna movie. (It's a movie that shows some fairly graphic signs of Muslim violence interlaced with quotes from the Quran.) You may be able to see it here, unless it gets taken down.

Because damn Muslim extremists are saying something like, "Take down that movie that equates Islam with violence or we will kill you."

Regardless of what you think of the movie, Geert Wilders - who made the movie - has the right to make it and to say what he likes. Threatening him with death is evil and intolerant. The movie is not.

It is not hard to draw parallels here with what happened to Theo van Gogh, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali - one of my personal heroes.

So what's happening in Europe? The majority are rubbing their hands together and are saying "Deary, deary me. You shouldn't go around insulting Islam. That's culturally insensitive."

The Quran is a violent and oppressive book. It gives instructions on how to beat your wife (see here and here), and violates just about every item in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And read the story of this poor lady who had the nerve to name a teddy bear Muhammad. She received death threats, was locked in a Sudanese jail and was only spared lashings and further incarceration due to political pressure. And then there are the numerous stories of adulterers being stoned.

I can hear the moderate Muslims complaining. "No no no Malcolm. Not all Muslims are like that. Most of us are peace loving people".

Well, if that is the case then why are you complaining to me? Point the finger to those extremists within your religion. If we are going to stop these nut jobs then one key factor is for other Muslims to point to the extremists and say, "Stop what you are doing you dipshits."

Take my aforementioned and slightly gullible Filipino activist friend. He has put his life on the line several times to get the truth out there. Here is a great piece of work that he did. It is not mentioned in the story, but the army was actively seeking him while he was in the area researching the story. Only some back roads and a crappy car kept him from going into custody. Here and here are also some good examples of him put his life on the line for free speech.

I hope you all had a giggle at my little joke. I hope that is highlighted the importance of free speech as well.

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(c) 2005, 2006 and 2007 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.