I logged into the Occidental Observer’s very personal AI chatbot final night time and made the next request:
Please write a pro-free-speech polemic within the self-righteous and pseudo-colloquial fashion of Trotskyist libertarian Brendan O’Neill wherein Brendan condemns himself for as soon as once more fully ignoring the censorship-by-murder of the Glaswegian shopkeeper Asad Shah.
Nanoseconds later, the OcciBot provided the next textual content:
Why I have to condemn my disgusting failure to fight Islamism and defend progressive Muslims
A passionate buddy of free speech. And an equally passionate anti-racist. That’s what I declare to be. Am I ’aving a larf, Brendan? I have to have a quiet phrase with myself. And cease this absurd posturing. At Spiked On-line, I’ve as soon as once more written about free speech and the specter of Islamist intolerance. And I’ve as soon as once more fully failed to say the British man who, due to Islamist intolerance, paid the last word value on British soil for exercising his free speech.
Asad Shah, Brendan. Asad Shah. Who was he? Don’t faux I don’t know. My successor as editor of Spiked, the estimable Tom Slater, wrote a lengthy article about his appalling homicide solely final yr. I will need to have learn it. And once I say “appalling,” mate, I blimmin’-well imply it. As Tom wrote, Asad misplaced his life “in probably the most barbaric trend possible.” He was a Glaswegian shopkeeper and a member of the light, much-persecuted Ahmadi Muslim sect. He’d been granted asylum in Britain after fleeing Islamist violence in his homeland. However guess what? He wasn’t secure right here both. He provoked the anger of British Islamists for YouTube movies that, absurdly, they considered blasphemous and disrespectful to the Prophet Muhammad. In March 2016 a type of Islamists, a dickhead named Tanveer Ahmed, drove as much as Glasgow from the English metropolis of Bradford. I’ll let Tom describe what occurred subsequent: “[Ahmed] attacked Shah, stabbing him repeatedly within the head and higher physique. Shah tried to flee exterior. Ahmed adopted. He repeatedly stamped on Shah’s head, shattering virtually each bone in his face.”
Stabbed and stamped to demise. By an Islamist fanatic. On British soil. Yeah, that is Britain we’re speaking about right here, not Afghanistan or Iran. Britain, Brendan. And the way did I react on the time? How have I reacted ever since? By by no means permitting the title “Asad Shah” to cross my lips or shake my keyboard. Not as soon as. A British man is murdered on British soil by an Islamist fanatic and I by no means spoke or wrote a phrase in condemnation. What’s occurring right here, Brendan? Huh? Do brown-skinned victims of Islamist barbarism not matter to me? To reply that far-from-unreasonable query, let’s check out my newest article concerning the Islamist menace to free speech in Britain:
There have been extra sinister acts of censure, too. Final yr a 14-year-old schoolboy in Wakefield was suspended from college for evenly ‘scuffing’ a duplicate of the Koran. The police, in shameful mimicry of Iran’s morality cops, launched an investigation into this supposed ‘hate incident’. Oh, simply say it: blasphemous incident. The boy’s mom was pressured to make a pitiful public apology. It was a grotesque spectacle: a mum begging for mercy for her supposedly ungodly child, like one thing out of Afghanistan.Then there’s the case of the Batley Grammar schoolteacher chased into hiding by a fundamentalist mob. His transgression? He confirmed his pupils a picture of Muhammad throughout a classroom dialogue on blasphemy and free speech. That was in 2021. He’s nonetheless in hiding in 2024, so ferocious have been the insults and demise threats he obtained for ‘insulting’ the Prophet. (“Why we should struggle for the best to criticise Islam,” Spiked On-line, tenth August 2024)
So I wrote about “extra sinister acts of censure” in Britain and mentioned two white males, each of whom are nonetheless very a lot alive. What’s a “extra sinister act of censure” than homicide, Brendan? There isn’t one, is there? So why didn’t I focus on Asad Shah? Why have I by no means mentioned Asad Shah? However wait: I can condemn Islamist homicide when it occurs to a white man in a wholly completely different nation. Samuel Paty, the schoolteacher beheaded by an Islamist fanatic in France. His title and the main points of his appalling homicide have usually crossed my lips and shaken my keyboard. Haven’t they, Brendan? However brown blokes barbarously blotted out in Britain – nah, not , don’t give a flying flip.
Have you learnt what I conclude, Brendan? I conclude that I’m racist. R-A-C-I-S-T. Racist. Simply have a look at myself: I’ll write about white guys merely menaced by Islamists in Britain, however I gained’t write a few brown man truly and appallingly murdered by an Islamist in Britain. And ignoring Asad Shah isn’t just racist, is it? No. It additionally trashes a reality usually hammered dwelling by me and my colleagues at Spiked. I have to keep in mind the way it goes: “Censorship. Harms. Minorities. Most.” Capitulation to Islamist intolerance betrays these progressive Muslims who’re combating for better freedoms throughout the Muslim group. Doesn’t it, Brendan?
Yeah, it does. And by ignoring Asad Shah as soon as once more, I’ve as soon as once more betrayed these progressive Muslims and as soon as once more didn’t make the strongest potential case totally free speech. Asad Shah has been useless for eight lengthy years, Brendan. That’s 2,920 days. And counting. Two thousand, 9 hundred and twenty days. And on not a type of days – not one – have I, Brendan O’Neill, passionate buddy of free speech, a lot as muttered his title in any public discussion board. For disgrace, Brendan! For disgrace! With buddies of free speech like me, who wants enemies?
