The Swedish Government has decided that being allowed to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is more important than the right to free speech or expression.
It’s not a prerequisite for membership. No NATO members other than the United States (that I can think of) have genuine constitutional protections for expression, association, or assembly. This is an oversight that each nation’s citizens increasingly regret as their elected officials expand infringements based on which way the wind is blowing (it’s always left if you were wondering).
Speech is limited across the North Atlantic Alliance, and the list of things that will get you a visit from the authorities continues to grow. Sweden, pining for a membership card, had – until recently – allowed the burning of revered texts without regard to the faith. No longer. Turkey reportedly told the Northern European ‘pledge’ that Qur’an burning needed to stop if it wanted their vote.
The Qur’an-burning protesters are out of business for the time being in Sweden, however, as the Swedish police, which quite recently allowed the burnings on the grounds of free expression, have just banned public burnings of the Islamic holy book. Sweden is under heavy pressure from the government of Turkey, which is opposing its membership in NATO unless it abandons the freedom of speech.
The Swedish-language news outlet SVT reported Thursday that in the last few days, “two applications for Qur’an burnings have been denied.” Police spokesperson Ola Österling was unequivocal: “As a rule in Stockholm, we will not allow burning the Qur’an during public gatherings.”
Some say that the police ban on Qur’an burnings violates the protection of the freedom of expression in the Swedish constitution, and Österling says that the police welcome this challenge: “We want to have it tested that our reasoning is legal.
There are other, more familiar concerns. Sweden has for years been a destination for massive migrations of Muslims. You may be familiar with stories of Swedish women attacked by rape gangs or week-long riots. Collective outrage is a character trait for enough of the transplants that it has become easier for European countries like Sweden to deny rights than defend them.
But you can burn everyone else’s holy texts.
If you burn a Bible, Christians won’t kill you, and the Leftist intelligentsia will applaud your courage and give you awards and grants. When it comes to the Qur’an, however, suddenly the most stalwart exponents of the freedom of expression start talking about how much we need to curtail that freedom in order to respect the rights of others. This is because if you burn a Qur’an, some Muslims will want very much to kill you.
It’s a convenient double standard with yet another edge. If Christians or Jews, or any people of any other faith, began harming people or property in response to alleged blasphemy, the local constabulary and their political masters would have them rounded up and imprisoned, which is telling.
The erosion of free expression is a necessary goal for the political left: a movement trait. A sign. Those who demand or accommodate it within their adult societies are advancing (deliberately or not) Leftism toward its final form—the despotic authoritarianism of tyranny. Or is it the tyranny of autocratic despotism?
You get the point.
Every exception is another brick in the wall meant to separate individuals from any right not granted by the tyrants and despots.
It will be interesting to see whether Sweden’s ‘Constitution’ – or, more accurately, those tasked with interpreting it – will see things favoring freedom of expression (natural rights) or political whim (creeping despotism).
My money is on the latter.
