DAR AL HARB - AUSTRALIA: 'FREE SPEECH FOR MAD MULLAHS'

Free Speech for Mad Mullahs

The State Premiers and Attorneys-General are more concerned with rubbing out graffiti than rubbing out terrorists.

That's the only conclusion that can be drawn from the extraordinary reluctance of the states and territories to deal with the distribution of inflammatory and divisive DVDs which incite and counsel viewers to perform terrorist acts, while the same politicians were simultaneously showing extraordinary keenness to suppress video games which promote graffiti and schoolyard bullying.

Given a choice of banning games about graffiti (promoted by the touchy-feely crowd as a means of encouraging idiots to explore their artistic selves), and banning terrorist DVDs, there should be no room for discussion, but that doesn't apply when loopy civil libertarians like Victoria's Attorney-General Rob Hull enter the equation.

That's why meetings between politicians with federal responsibilities and those from the state sphere, such the round of talks which took place in Canberra last Friday, are extremely valuable - they serve to remind us of the comparatively pygmy-proportioned intellects of the state representatives.

While the state premiers were parading their parochialism before Prime Minister John Howard, the state attorneys-general were engaged in an abject display of petty politics before Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.

One of the prime issues raised at that conference was the question of banning DVDs which advocate terrorism.

Now, you may well think that this was on the agenda because of the decision by the Office of Film and Literature Classification to Review Board to issue a parental guidance classification to a series of DVDs made by the hate-filled Sydney sheik Feiz Mohammed, who has now fled to Lebanon.

Feiz, who started the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Sydney's west before claiming he was being persecuted because of his religious beliefs, exhorted Muslim parents to tell their children there is no greater goal than to die for their faith. He also referred to Jews and Christians in outrageous terms.

The reality is the question of dealing with this sort of inflammatory material with its capacity to incite or advocate terrorism first arose almost 12 months ago when Ruddock asked the state attorneys-general to focus their minds on the problem.

To no one's surprise, Hulls, a shameless civil libertarian who has already burdened Victorians with a ridiculous charter of rights which will fatten the wallets of lawyers, was not happy with the notion wannabe terrorists might be deprived of essential learning materials.

As a long-time supporter of South Australia's home-grown self-confessed al-Qaeda trainee David Hicks, Hulls thought restrictions on DVDs might place a curb on free speech.

At the same time, he was happy to go along with a Queensland proposal to place restrictions on the sale of video games promoting graffiti.

Free speech for mad mullahs who want to spray lead into the homes of infidels, but not for jerks who want to spray execrable scrawls on subway walls.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Free speech for mad mullahs