Speech is free in this country, but there’s a group that’s challenging whether that’s always the case.
The Lawfare Project is out with a new video that says when it comes to talking about Islam, Americans often feel censored.
“Virtually every religion is open to a conversation; every religion except Islam,” reads a narrator over one scene in the video.
According to those behind the Lawfare Project, an organization which says it’s committed to exposing treats to free speech and democracy, there’s been a stifling of speech in this country.
“Basically it’s intimidation, it’s the filing of predatory lawsuits, threats of lawsuits, slandering people and self-censorship in the West of anyone brave enough to talk about these issues,” said Lawfare Project’s Research Director Benjamin Ryberg.
His group is seeking to raise awareness and the level of discussion with this video.
“When Major Nidal Hassan went on a murdering spree at Fort Hood, the U.S. government classified his act of terrorism as workplace violence,” reads another voice-over as an ink drawing of Nidal fills the screen.
Former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Pete Hoekstra says the problem dates back to 9–11.
“Everybody’s been kind of walking around the issue of identifying the real root of the terrorist threat. It is radical Islam,” said Hoekstra.
We wanted to get the perspective of the Council on American Islamic Relations on this topic but they declined our request for an interview.
Instead they sent this statement:
“The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) is one of the nation’s leading defenders of First Amendment rights, and we use the constitutionally-protected right of free speech to challenge agenda–driven groups like the Lawfare Project that seek to demonize Islam and marginalize American Muslims by recycling Islamophobic smears.”
Other critics of the newly released video say it isolates the vast majority of Muslims who do not condone violence.
But Hoekstra, who now works with the Investigative Project on Terrorism, believes people in the Middle East often have more freedom to discuss Islam than here in the U.S.
“It will happen in Pakistan after the brutal murder of 132 kids. It’s happening in Iraq and Syria after women are being slaughtered, after Christians and Jews are being slaughtered,” said Hoekstra.
For now, the freedom to speak about radical Islam openly itself causes passionate debate.