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VisionTV defends airing 'jihad' lecture
By Stewart Bell
National Post
Thursday, July 19, 2007
TORONTO VisionTV says it will monitor one of its shows more closely after it broadcast a lecture by an Islamic preacher who said scripture requires Muslims to either fight jihad or finance it.
The multi-faith channel, available in 7.8 million Canadian homes, said it took the precaution following a complaint about last Saturday's broadcast of a lecture by the Pakistani fundamentalist.
In the hour-long talk, Israr Ahmad said, "Jihad in the way of Allah, for the cause of Allah, can be pursued either with your financial resources or your bodily strength when you go to fight the enemy in the battlefield.
"So jihad, the highest form, is fighting in the cause of Allah."
...
"We have essentially a system of flagging shows when complaints are made, where we'll watch subsequent episodes even more carefully than we otherwise do, and take extra care and caution. So that's certainly the case here," said Mark Prasuhn, VisionTV's chief operating officer and vice-president of programming.
Toronto resident Mindy Alter, however, said the message came through loud and clear when she tuned in to the show, which aired from 3 to 4 p.m. on July 14.
"The part about the jihad, he said very specifically that it is incumbent upon Muslims to wage jihad against their enemies until Islam rules supreme over the world," Mrs. Alter said.
"I'm sorry, I don't think that belonged over the airwaves of Canadian TV.... You can put that in whatever context you like. To me that's preaching jihad."
Responded Mr. Prasuhn: "Definitely, the viewer is correct. [Mr. Ahmad] does make the point about, you either contribute financially or through your body, and he uses the word fight. But none of this, as far as I could see, is in any way correlated or referenced to the present day. It is strictly a historical context and reading of the Koran by a Koranic scholar."
Mr. Ahmad is not just a religious scholar. He heads a self-described "revolutionary" organization called Tanzeem-e Islami, which wants to turn Pakistan into a fundamentalist Islamic state.
There are reasons I don't want a dish that picks up Al Jazeera:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=4737dd34-8de6-4f54-b376-3484f3b3a6f7&k=0
See what ultra tolerance does, it allows intolerance because no moral judgments can be made about what is right and what is wrong, making everything morally equivalent. Im sorry, but im not gonna wait till im perfect to make moral judgments, that what a society is supposed to do to stop crap like this from airing.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013585.php
I read. Doesn't change the content, does it? Then again, that wasn't the point.
In some places it would, but in Canada it wouldn't. As you probably know, Canada has laws against hate speech, promoting genocide, and the funding of terrorism. A serious legal argument can be made that calls to Jihad violates the Anti-terrorism Act (S.C. 2001, c.41) and Section 318 of the Criminal Code: Advocating Genocide.In some places, wouldn't that be a free speech thingy? Serious question.
There is a difference between allowing free speech and promoting enemy propaganda. Many broadcasts of Al Jazeera are PR releases for Al Qaeda. Is it not the promotion of enemy propaganda that new tapes from the criminal leaders of Al Qaeda appear via Al Jazeera and are thereby released worldwide? Is it not enemy propaganda to promote the fact that violent jihad is Islamic duty? Was radio Berlin allowed to broadcast in North America in 1943? Did radio Hanoi broadcast in Toronto or NYC in the 60s and 70s? We should not permit a transnational enemy to broadcast in North America simply because it hides behind a media outlet from Qatar.What's to be done? Government censorship? Did you read where the article said that Vision TV is going to monitor the show in future?
In some places, wouldn't that be a free speech thingy? Serious question.
I'd be interested in watching it.
Since, I'm pretty sure 99.9999% of Americans have never seen it and many get their opinions of al-Jazeera from opinionated right-wing American commentators.
Al-Jazeera is an important network as it is the first pan-Arab free media news outlet in the region. Many of the governments in the region hate it. If you believe in freedom, you'll support al-Jazeera's right to broadcast, even if you don't want to watch it.
However, in Canada, it will be subject to hate laws. A few months ago, a cable channel that broadcasted an iman from Pakistan was threatened with its license for hate speech against Jews if he wasn't removed.
What hate speech? A differing opinion is NOT hate speech!!!!!!!!! Kathianne doesn't get that. Do you?
