Michael Savage Banned from Britain for Defamation of Islam

By Dr. Charles McVety —— Bio and Archives May 7, 2009

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On Wednesday, prominent Jewish radio talk show host Michael Savage was the first American to be penalized for criticizing Islam when British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith banned Mr. Savage from entering Britain. Today it is Michael Savage, tomorrow it will be you and me.

In March 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed Resolution A/HRC/10/L calling for the “creation of laws in member states to prevent criticism of religions (Islam)”.    The UN’s anti-blasphemy resolution was written by Pakistan and presented by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).   The UN Council, with a vote of 23 countries supporting the measure, 11 opposed and 13 that abstained, passed it in March, 2009.  The resolution states, in part, the following:  

• defamation of religions is a serious affront to human dignity
• the need to effectively combat defamation of all religions and incitement to religious hatred in general and against Islam and Muslims in particular
• Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism
• Urges all States to provide, within their respective legal and constitutional systems, adequate protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions, and incitement to religious hatred in general.

  When asked by the media why Michael Savage was on the list, Secretary Jacqui Smith responded using very similar UN Resolution language, stating “(Mr. Savage is) someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country”.   Mr. Savage was not banned due to actions but his “views and expressions”.  Savage has not advocated violence, supported genocide or advised anyone to harm another.  He has been banned for speaking against Islam, period.   The irony is that this UN resolution directly contradicts the UN Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 that states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”  All free societies are based on fundamental freedom of speech, thought and expression.    Our freedom is severely jeopardized when a well-known American talk show host with over 10 million weekly listeners can be restricted in travel for speaking against Islam.  Truth has become a victim of political correctness as Islamic followers can kill, behead, bomb and terrorize, and if someone speaks against the ideology that led these barbarians to commit such horrific acts, Orwellian society bans that person from travel.    Today is 1984.  Tomorrow the temperature will reach 451 degrees fahrenheit.