Do check out my weekly commentary in today's WND. Here is a short excerpt, but read the whole thing.
Tennessee passes worst law ever Pamela Geller
While everyone in the counter jihad movement lauded Tennessee for the recent passage of a watered-down (and mostly symbolic) "anti-terrorism" bill, another bill that the Tennessee Legislature quietly passed could be the worst law ever. Completely under the radar screen, with no debate or histrionics, Tennessee has just criminalized thought and intent. According to journalist Timothy B. Lee, writing at the Ars Technica website, "A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to 'transmit or display an image' online that is likely to 'frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress' to someone who sees it. Violations can get you almost a year in jail time or up to $2,500 in fines."
This legislation is a milestone in the history of free speech and free thought in the United States – yes, a milestone that Sayyid Qutb would love: a deathblow to free speech. You can be sure that among the first people who will try to capitalize upon this gross violation of the First Amendment will be the Islamic supremacist groups in the U.S. that are bent on silencing people who are telling the truth about Islam and jihad.
[...]Yet hardly anyone has noticed this legislation in all the excitement over Tennessee's anti-terror law. Forgive me for not jumping up and down over all this anti-Shariah legislation. I appreciate and respect its intent, but, ultimately, I think it is pointless. The Constitution specifies the freedoms that the government is not supposed to take away, and these include the freedoms that Shariah denies. So the Constitution covers the same ground as anti-Shariah legislation. The Constitution is supposed to have our backs. If we can't rely on the Constitution and the First Amendment in particular to safeguard our freedoms, then watered-down "foreign law prohibition legislation" is not going to save us.
Read the rest.
