Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy in the Washington Times today predicts (without any evidence, of course) that President Obama will impose constraints on the freedom of speech if he is re-elected. His column promotes a new movie called “Silent Conquest” and borrows liberally from the film’s promotional materials. The film claims Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have accepted “submission to the stealthy Islamist effort to enforce in this country the supremacist doctrine known as shariah and its prohibition of any expression that ‘offends’ Islam or its god, prophet or followers,” and features Gaffney along with other anti-Muslim conspiracy theorists like Rep. Allen West (R-FL), Brigitte Gabriel, Geert Wilders, Mark Steyn, Daniel Pipes and Nonie Darwish.
Gaffney centers his argument on a resolution pushed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation that targets blasphemy. However, the resolution failed and the Obama administration opposed it. But Gaffney maintains that Obama “has been enabling in this country an insidious effort by Islamic supremacists” and has put “persons with extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood” in places of power. He warns Obama and his allies may “redouble their efforts to restrict your freedom of expression” and accelerate “efforts to appease Islamists [that] are imperiling our country and freedoms” if he wins re-election.
As Americans go to the polls, many factors may influence how they vote for president. Among those — if not pre-eminent among them — should be the kind of country they want to bequeath to their children. It is unlikely that most voters would knowingly and deliberately opt for a candidate who appears determined to make the United States a nation that does not respect and safeguard our most foundational constitutional right: freedom of expression.
It may seem unbelievable that anyone running for the presidency would even consider such a betrayal of the oath of office governing that position, let alone work toward that end. Yet, as a new film, “Silent Conquest,” makes clear, President Obama, from his first months in office, has been enabling in this country an insidious effort by Islamic supremacists to keep us from engaging in speech, videos, training or other forms of expression that offend Muslims, their god, prophet and faith.
The documentary opens with Mr. Obama’s astounding pronouncement at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 25: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” This sentiment could have been expressed as easily by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Taliban or al Qaeda. Unfortunately, it is but one of many manifestations of an Obama policy approach that has brought U.S. diplomacy and government practice into closer and closer alignment with the demands of Islamists that such “slanders” be prohibited and criminalized.
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The question is this: If given a second term, will President Obama and those he is entrusting with policymaking and advisory roles — including persons with extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood — redouble their efforts to restrict your freedom of expression? Or will they recognize, in this regard at least, that their efforts to appease Islamists are imperiling our country and freedoms?
Unfortunately, there seems to be little reason to expect such a fundamental and much-needed course correction should Mr. Obama be re-elected and obtain, in his words, “more flexibility.” That is especially true in light of the decline of respect for the right of free expression in other quarters that this president seems to hold in higher esteem than our own nation and its Constitution. As “Silent Conquest” powerfully documents, this trend to submit to Shariah blasphemy codes is even further advanced in Europe and the United Nations.
Before you cast your vote Tuesday, reflect on this: Are you willing to bet your country and your personal freedoms on the proposition that four more years of Mr. Obama’s efforts to emulate the euro-U.N. types in accommodating the Islamists won’t wind up “fundamentally transforming” the America we pass on to our children, to their great detriment — and ours?
