The Danish Free Press Society Should Now Have a Renewed Resolve for the Truth

My only source of information for the outrageous distortions of Lars Hedegaard's interview that I wrote about in my last post was The Copenhagen Post. Since then, I have dug up more information, and the International Free Press Society website also posted an article Hedegaard wrote to discuss (explain is too submissive) his interview.

Hedegaard’s 30-minute interview with the website Snaphanen is here. It is an interesting and lucid commentary by Hedegaard, and is based on the new book that he co-wrote titled The 1400-year War.

The exaggerated comments that were reported on The Copenhagen Post were revised editions of comments made by blogger Lars Pilegaard, which were published at the online 180Grader by its editor-in-chief Ole Birk Olesen. Pilegaard has accused Hedegaard of "revolt, lynching and war" against Muslims and that he has defamed them by calling them rapists and liars (I've addressed these two distorted interpretations of Hedegaard's words in my previous post, and Hedegaard also addresses them in his article).

Hedegaard’s direct quotes printed in The Copenhagen Post are from the Snaphanen interview. One of them, on lying, is slightly incorrect, or incomplete. It should be:

"Whenever it's advisable for a Muslim to hide his true intentions, to lie, to [inaudible] false oaths in his own interest and in the interest of Islam, he is either advised to do so or he's ordered to do so..."

Besides three members of the Danish FPS quitting, an outside personality, the deputy chairman of Arhus integration council Yilmaz Evcil, has filed a complaint against Hedegaard to the police for his "racist comments" during the Snaphanen interview. The IFPS website calls it "charges for 'hate speech.'"

This is a serious development in the small world of counter-jihad leaders who are also fighting for freedom of the press and of speech. Clearly, criticizing Islam has its repercussions, however soundly, moderately and thoughtfully one does so. Even freedom of the press advocates, such as the three advisory board members who quit, are willing to suppress the press (and speech) if they feel that a line has been crossed when discussing Islam and Muslims. The suppression is of course based on anti-discriminatory principles, rather than reporting falsehoods.

If criticizing Muslims (and other foreigners and immigrants) is not acceptable, and gets in the way of reporting and discussing the truth of their situations, then the various FPSs have a lot of work to do. But perhaps it is good that the "bad seed" of the Danish FPS have been weeded out. This incident should give Hedegaard and his remaining team more resolve to fight the truth-squelching Muslims and their allies, and to battle on with the difficult and dangerous job of exposing the truth. And by extension, it should be a lesson to us all.