Redefining the First Amendment

Read This While You Can

Cindy Simpson

Read this column by Diana West while you can -- while we still have journalists brave enough to write the truth, and before the truth is censored.  West, a syndicated columnist and author, noted an astonishing statement within Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly, and dissected and explored its meaning and terrifying implications. 
West's column, "The Anti-Blasphemy, Anti-First-Amendment President," highlighted this extraordinary Obama sentence:

"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."

West noted:

No Big Media outlet reported this stunning pronouncement. It's as if Ronald Reagan addressed the National Association of Evangelicals in 1983 and the media failed to report that he used the phrase "evil empire." To make the comparison more direct, imagine if a Republican president declared that "the future must not belong to those who slander the messiah of Christianity" - or, for that matter, the prophet of Latter-day Saints. We would have heard all about it, and for the rest of our lives.

The meaning of "slander" under Islamic law is explained by West to encompass "anything Muslims perceive to reflect badly on Islam and its prophet, including the truth. " (Emphasis mine.) Such a definition, as West noted, would include any criticism of "Muhammad and, by natural extension, Muhammad's totalitarian religious/legal system of governance."
In acknowledging the qualifying sentences Obama wrapped around that extraordinary statement, West explained:

But, but, but ... the president also said the future "must not belong" to those who "target Coptic Christians in Egypt"... and "bully women."
First of all, "target" and "bully" are wan verbs to describe the terror, bloodletting and systemic abuse that Christian populations and women suffer at the hands of Islam. More important, though, the violence inherent to religious cleansing and female oppression is in no way comparable to the most critical words or pictures on a page or screen. Such an equivalence is immoral. The president should be ashamed.

Read West's insightful column in its entirety.  Her conclusion is chilling:  "I can't think of another instance in which an American president has publicly uttered such a rank betrayal of American principles. And the media censored it!"
The mainstream "old media" may be censoring the truth -- but for now, anyway, we still have New Media.  And we have word-of-mouth.  Go tell it on the mountain.