Who Doesn't Get it???

I hate to quote from anything at the New York Times-owned International Herald Tribune. They are so uniformly PC and plain wrong that it makes me question my own thinking when something they print makes a modicum of sense.

Nevertheless, Matthew Rojansky's "Europe doesn't get free speech" makes partial sense, especially in this observation in condemning the prosecution of David Irving.

The European Convention on Human Rights, which legally binds all EU states and supersedes domestic law, explicitly guarantees "the right to freedom of expression" including "the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority."

This provision is in keeping not only with the U.S. Bill of Rights, but with the central instruments of international human rights law to which Europe and America claim adherence. Yet Europe's interpretation of free expression has diverged markedly from America's broad deference to First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly and religion.

Unfortunately for his case, he then goes on to blame the problem on Europe for suppressing Muslims' right to dress as their religion dictates, meaning in French schools. And from there the whole article degenerates into the kind of babble we fully expect from the Left as he urges European governments to tolerance and respect for different cultures and beliefs.. etc etc. As if that isn't already the crux of the problem.

The Left has no coherence. The European Convention of Human Rights was written and continues to be used to trump the laws of nations, an excuse for elected governments to collaborate in the process of de-legitimizing the nation state. Vichy socialism is the norm in Europe. The Cartoon War, radical mosques in European countries, and the Paris riots are all testaments to the failure of multiculturalism. And the lack of western media to support free speech in the Danish cartoon controversy shows a decided hypocrisy in criticizing anyone on the issue.