They really do. Christians are second-class citizens in Saudi Arabia. Neither churches nor Bibles are allowed there. But nobody usually calls it apartheid because of the furore that it would evoke -- with great steaming accusations of "hate speech" being heard. But if someone says that Israel practices apartheid (when it doesn't. There's a huge mosque right in the middle of Jerusalem) then that's OK, of course:
"A report by City of Toronto officials has dealt a blow to one hope of the Ford administration: The group Queers Against Israeli Apatheid (QuAIA), which has been a thorn in the city’s side due to its participation in the partially city-funded Pride Parade, has been ruled to not constitute a hate group, and the term Israeli Apartheid, not hate speech.
This will disappoint many staunch defenders of Israel, but is the correct ruling. Unfair, overheated and frankly ignorant as the claim that Israel is an apartheid state may be, such political opinions are not hate speech (though no doubt many genuine anti-Semites find succor in the language).
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3 comments:
To Gregory Smith, Thank you for your thoughtful post.
This is in fact the very definition of hate speech: lies designed to incite hatred against a person or group.
But of course in our PC world the definition of hate speech too has been turned around so that now it's defined as "telling the truth about hatred and lies".
Thanks Jonathan.
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