My thoughts on the Mikko Ellilä controversy - let's THINK about it

I apologize in advance - while this post is all-encompassing, it is not succinct.

We bloggers are so lemming-like predictable! Just sneak up behind one of us, whisper "freedom of speech infringement," and we howl in a Pavlovian manner. So goes the blogosphere today, as reports (Tundra Tabloids, Gates of Vienna, Finland for Thought) surface that Mikko Ellila has to talk to the Finnish police about some things that he said in his blog.

The blogosphere reaction is predictable:

BETTER TO FIGHT FOR REAL FREEDOM THAN SURRENDER TO ILLUSORY 'PEACE'.

Or take this from Mikko himself:

This is an extremely important case, a litmus test for the freedom of speech, a landmark case, a historical milestone.

So when you encounter a case like this, you are supposed to blindly join the throng and castigate the Finnish police and the Muslim world without thinking about the issues, right?

Not a chance.

Let's take a step back and look at the Mikko Ellilä situation. As you know, I can't read a word of Finnish (well, I can read one or two words of Finnish), so I don't know what Ellila says about Muslims in his blog. However, he did write something in English that states his views:

The main point that I have been trying to make in my blog is that the Muslims ARE fascists who want to kill Jews, atheists, homosexuals, etc.

Trying to prosecute me for saying that Islam is a totalitarian ideology is like trying to sue someone for saying Hitler was a Nazi.

Let's take each of his points one by one:

• As you know, I dislike the broad misuse of the word "fascist," which seems to be indisciminately applied to anyone whose views you don't like, although I guess one could argue that total submission to Allah, including both your government and business affairs, would lead to a cooperation between the government and business realsm that could be mislabeled as fascism.


• As for killing the Jews, to my knowledge Bill Handel did not receive death threats after his Mecca stampede parody, and I don't think he has to travel with dozens of bodyguards when he does his promotional work with Dom DeLuise or whoever. Maybe Finnish Jews are being killed by the trainload and it's just being covered up. I don't know.


• Now let's move on to killing atheists. While some would argue that murder is not a crime to an atheist, I believe that atheists do obtain their own personal morality from whatever. But do Muslims differentiate between atheists and, say, Hindus? Pakistan and India seem to be getting along reasonably well at the moment (well, better than Eastvale and Jurupa Valley, at least).


• As for Muslims wanting to kill homosexuals. Again, if this is happening in Finland, then there's a huge coverup about it.


• Now for the best category of all, the "etc." category (which is where I fit in, since I'm not a Muslim, nor a Jew, atheist, or homosexual). I'll grant that it's only noon, but so far today no Muslim has come up to me and said, "I want to kill you." Come to think of it, that didn't happen yesterday, either.

As you can see, I don't agree with anything that Mikko Ellilä says, and at least some of the bloggers who are supporting him don't agree with his views either. Now, is it a crime for Mikko Ellila to be saying the things that he says?

Before you answer that question, let's look at some other cases about some people who said some things.

• ITEM ONE - David Kerr recently posted this 1991 story: "A Hasidic Jewish driver in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section accidentally kills Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black child, and antisemitic riots erupt. Sharpton races to pour gasoline on the fire. At Gavin's funeral he rails against the 'diamond merchants' -- code for Jews -- with 'the blood of innocent babies' on their hands. He mobilizes hundreds of demonstrators to march through the Jewish neighborhood, chanting, 'No justice, no peace.'" Does the freedom of speech-loving blogosphere agree that Al Sharpton should NOT be prosecuted for his mere words?


• Conversely, if anyone criticizes Al Sharpton's words, should THEY be prosecuted for trying to restrict Sharpton's freedom of speech?


• ITEM TWO - Recently, the city of Boston banned Boing Boing access on its wi-fi network because of the presence of a URL for a Google search without SafeSearch (in other words, a search that theoretically included all the dirty stuff). Should the Boing Boing post author have been prosecuted by the government for using an unsafe search?


• Conversely, if I post a Google link that DOES use SafeSearch, should I be prosecuted for restricting access to information?


• ITEM THREE - Speaking of Google, its board recommended against a proposal that would restrict Google from engaging in proactive censorship efforts. If a Chinese dissident says Naughty Words like "democracy," should the dissident be prosecuted?


• Conversely, if Google says Naughty Words like "That post originated from 127.127.127.127," should they be prosecuted for exercising THEIR freedom of speech?


• ITEM FOUR - If you've defend the freedom of speech of everyone listed above, one more question - how about spammers?

Easy questions to answer, aren't they?

Oh, by the way, I left out something about the Gavin Cato story. If you believe that Sharpton can talk about "diamond merchants" and "the blood of innocent babies" all that he wants, consider the one part that I left out. Again from David Kerr's blog:

A rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum, is surrounded by a mob shouting "Kill the Jews!" and stabbed to death.

Even though Sharpton didn't intend for his words to result in murder, a murder happened. Similarly, what if a "blogger freedom fighter" runs to a Finnish taquito stand, screams "FREE MIKKO ELLILA" (in Finnish), and wastes a Muslim as he eats his shredded beef taquito?

My views on the matter? If Ellila's Finnish words reflect his English words, I don't see any reason for the law to get involved just because he calls Muslims a bunch of murder-happy fascists.

But would my views change if Muslims were killed in Finland after the killers were inspired by Ellila's characterization of Muslims as "fascists"? Perhaps.

censorship

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