Intellectual freedom in Canada: Leftists are more successful against civil dissent than Islamists are, and that's no accident

In her column here introducing the upcoming debate between Richard "Darwin's Rottweiler" Dawkins and Oxford mathematician John Lennox, Phillips notes the close co-operation between militant secular leftists and militant Islamists - a co-operation we have also witnessed in Canada, where leftists encourage Islamists to use the "human rights" commissions to drag media through the courts.

This loss of cultural nerve has created an unwitting collusion between secular zealots and the Islamists who have declared war upon western civilisation, and who believe — correctly — that a secular west will be unable to resist them.

Phillips, close readers will note, describes it as an "unwitting" collusion. I honestly don't know about that part. Here in Canada, I think it was a calculated gamble on the part of the anti-democratic left that they could use the Islamists to target Canadian Christians (Mark Steyn) or pro-Israel Jews (Ezra Levant), in pursuit of their goals.

Well, so far, it has bombed. The Islamists have not succeeded in getting a conviction so far in a single kangaroo court I know of. And remember, these are not courts in any normal sense, they are kangaroo courts. Still, the Islamists bombed.

Why? Because the leftists are smart enough to hound unknown pastors (Stephen Boissoin) or little-known priests (Fr. DeValk) in a nation where too many "Christians" holler and thump for Jesus when the mood takes them - but do not even know, let alone care, what is happening in the real world to which Jesus would direct them.

I very much regret to say that many Canadian Christians' faith does not include being the good citizen who, in the famous words of Junius, "neither advises nor submits to arbitrary measures" in government. So the leftists have been astoundingly successful at persecuting Christians, as Ezra Levant has pointed out. I hope that will change, but until it does, "human rights" commissions will pick off traditional pastors at will.

The Islamists, by contrast, misjudged the state of play and attacked two of the most articulate Canadians alive, Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant. A firestorm erupted, and the Islamists got plenty of publicity, that's for sure. But it was mostly unfavourable. Now, it's true that they still won in the sense that very few articulate Canadians have enough backing to withstand the expense of a legal defense in a kangaroo court where the other side is funded by the government. So few media will want to risk honest investigations of what Islamists are saying and doing.

But I heard a rumour recently that some of the Islamists think that they've been had by the leftists. They were, after all, encouraged to use the "human rights" commissions to go on the offensive against anyone who, in their opinion, had insulted Islam. And look what happened ... they didn't win.

Note to Islamists: Yes, that's right, folks. You've been done had. The leftists hate Mark and Ezra because they are fifty times smarter and more articulate than any Canadian leftist. They used you to go after them, because they daren't do it themselves. They were probably hoping you'd lose, as long as you inflicted lots of damage on Mark and Ezra.

The irony is that leftists despise you way more than most Canadians could ever imagine doing. I, for example, do not think you are at all wrong to believe in God and want to serve him. But I recommend that you pay a little more attention to the carefully worked out structures of religious tolerance here in Canada. Remember, tolerance means putting up with things you don't agree with, because the general welfare is better served that way.

See also Screed: Why change is so desperately needed in Canada.