First Amendment? Pah! Muslims Are Offended!

From Patrick Poole at PJM:

Maine: Dhimmi bureaucrats fine anti-jihad group $4,000 for "inflammatory anti-Muslim message" Free Speech Death Watch Alert: "Maine Fines Group for ‘Inflammatory Anti-Muslim Message,’" by Patrick Poole for Pajamas Media,   June 25: An organization in the national spotlight recently for producing a documentary identifying several dozen potential terrorist training compounds in the U.S. has offended the sensibilities of Maine bureaucrats, who have fined the organization $4,000, alleging among other things that the group sent out mailings containing an “inflammatory anti-Muslim message.” The group in question, the Christian Action Network (CAN), received notice of the fines and the fundraising ban in a May 6 letter from Elaine Thibodeau of the State of Maine’s Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. Enclosed in the letter was a prepared consent agreement for CAN to sign agreeing to all of the state’s allegations, waiving all rights to appeal, and agreeing to pay the $4,000 fine. As part of the consent agreement, CAN is required to agree to all of the state’s allegations,including their assertion that their mailing amounted to hate speech. “These bogus charges and fines the State of Maine has imposed are nothing but an attempt to stifle our free speech and silence our organization from speaking out about the steady creep of radical Islam in America,” CAN president Martin Mawyer told Pajamas Media. “We fully intend to appeal the state’s penalties because if they successfully silence us here, we will quickly find that we won’t be able to speak out anywhere.” CAN was in the news earlier this year following the release of their documentary, Homegrown Jihad, which details dozens of compounds across the U.S. operated by Pakistani Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, who has previously been identified in State Department reports as a terrorist leader, and his group, Jamaat al-Fuqra.  The documentary looks into the past terrorist acts of the group in the U.S., including the assassination of two moderate Muslim leaders, the firebombing of non-Muslim religious facilities, and an investigation by Colorado authorities that led to convictions and lengthy prison sentences. These activities have been covered in several FBI domestic terrorism reports and a more recent assessment by the Center for Policing Terrorism.  Other prominent convicted terrorists, including “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid, D.C. Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad, and NYC landmarks bomb plotter Clement Rodney Hampton-El, have been identified as former members. But what has Maine bureaucrats roiling is a fundraising mailing sent by CAN (a copy of which was provided to Pajamas Media) regarding a public school curriculum used in California requiring students to pray to Allah, dress up as Muslims, adopt Muslim names, and learn the five pillars of Islam. Since Christians and Jews are not given similar accommodations, CAN encouraged their supporters to send a petition to Maine Gov. John Baldacci asking him to prevent such instruction in Maine public schools. Among the stated allegations in Thibodeau’s letter and the consent agreement is that this amounted to hate speech, claiming: 5. The correspondence contained an inflammatory anti-Muslim message. In two separate rounds of correspondence with Thibodeau, I inquired what basis the state used to determine that the mailing was “inflammatory,” but she refused to address that question on both occasions.... “There’s little doubt that our documentary on Islamic terrorist camps operating inside the U.S. and our statements of concern about the spread of radical Islam is at the heart of the state’s actions. And we can’t help but conclude based on the available evidence that if we were ACORN, or any other group advocating some left-wing cause, they would be using a less-than-rigorous scrutiny in their interpretation of the law,” Mawyer said. “Would they ever dare consider applying these standards to CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations]?” CAN is appealing the fines issued by the State of Maine and is also considering a lawsuit to prevent bureaucrats from using rulings after the fact to go after charitable organizations running afoul of political correctness. If Maine were to prevail in this case, they fear that it would not only be used by groups like CAIR to attempt to discredit CAN’s investigative work, but also be an invitation for Maine and other states to use bureaucratic interpretations to go after other organizations making similar “inflammatory anti-Muslim messages.” Be sure to read it all -- the state's charges are chilling.

Bare naked islam has a related post up today. It discusses the disputed Religious tolerance acts being challenged in Australia. Also known as hate crimes legislation. It is BAD LAW! 

Pastor Danny Nalliah of "Catch the Fire Ministries" in Victoria State, Australia is interviewed by Pat Robertson on CBN. Must watch video discusses the American attempt at hate speech laws, H.R. 254.

Quoting Pastor Danny Nalliah: 

"In reality, this tolerance law is an intolerant law because the very reason the law was created, the reason it was created is having the complete opposite reaction to why it was formed. The religious vilification laws in Victoria was put in place to be a shield but it's been used by certain groups as a sword. So it's a bad piece of legislation.

Any open debate of any issues which are important and vital for our future cannot be debated any longer. for example, truth is not a defense under this law. It's a subjective law and it's not objective law. And if it's subjective 'hurt' - where do you measure it, how do you measure at what level people get 'hurt'?"

Robert Spencer covered the trials and tribulations of Pastor Danny Nalliah (and Pastor Scott) in Victoria here and here.