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Internet Freedom Under Siege
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Special Report
Islamist Lawfare
It continues to thrive long after the death of libel tourism.
On Tuesday, August 18, the Saudi Arabia-based Arab News reported that Khalid bin Mahfouz, the Saudi billionaire perhaps best known in the West as the “Libel Tourist” for his penchant for using U.K. connections to bring libel lawsuits against his critics had passed away.
However, the much-publicized phenomenon of ‘libel tourism’ — that is, the practice of non-United Kingdom residents suing American researchers and authors for libel in the plaintiff-friendly U.K. — had already effectively met its own demise over a year ago, date needed after Rachel Ehrenfeld’s refusal to comply with a British court’s default judgment in favor of bin Mahfouz against her led to the enactment of protective legislation in several U.S. states, and consideration of similar bills in Congress.
In fact, bin Mahfouz’s only newsworthy success came when he sued for libel over the book Alms for Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World, whose publisher, Cambridge University Press, capitulated to him, abjectly apologizing publicly and even requesting that libraries pull copies off of shelves — a request that American libraries categorically refused. However, unlike the Ehrenfeld case, bin Mahfouz’s suit over Alms for Jihad, reprehensible and predatory though it was, was not a case of libel tourism, since Alms for Jihad was “Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge.”
Yet, despite its brief and extremely limited existence, libel tourism has been allowed for too long to overshadow the real extent of the threat to free and open discourse on radical Islam, terrorism, and its sources of funding — Islamist legal warfare, or “lawfare.”
Unlike libel tourism, Islamist lawfare is not a mere tactic, but part of a grand strategy, and one that uses every legal opportunity possible to achieve its goals: including rewriting international human rights norms to comport with Shari’a-based interpretation, attempts to globally criminalize manufactured and unsubstantiated assertions of “Islamophobia” or “defamation” of religion, claims of “hate speech” or “harassment,” and promoting self-censorship by American publishers and media. Even as far as predatory libel lawsuits go, there have been many cases brought within the U.S. without the need to resort to British libel law, leaving bin Mahfouz’s “libel tourism” as generally unnecessary.
Even within the United States, fixating on the predatory domestic libel suits that are a mainstay of Islamist lawfare is dangerously myopic. Counterterrorism consultant Bruce Tefft is being sued by a John Doe Muslim police officer not for libel, but for “workplace harassment.” Random House’s cowardly decision not to publish the novel The Jewel of Medina, like Palgrave McMillan’s earlier decision to renege on publishing QURAN: A Reformist Translation, had nothing to do with threats of libel lawsuits, but everything to do with Islamist pressure.
Despite these and countless other examples, few are even aware of the term Islamist lawfare, much less the extent of its reach. Conducting an online search for the term “Islamist lawfare” on a major search engine will likely result in somewhere between 14,000 and 18,400 hits, while a search for “libel tourism” will net between 189,000 and 213,000 hits. In part, the number of hits for libel tourism is the positive result of excellent analyses of the phenomenon, such as Andrew C. McCarthy’s highly informative article, which appeared in the September, 2008 issue of Commentary magazine, where he clearly laid out the crucial public interest at stake, as “the need to understand and address financial support systems that invigorate the terror networks targeting Americans for mass murder.”
The danger does not stem from the fact that a search for libel tourism nets many results, which demonstrates how effective the response to libel tourism has been, but from the fact that the vastly more complex and dangerous issue of Islamist lawfare has yet to be fully addressed in the public arena.
Perhaps bin Mahfouz’s demise will provide an end to the dangerous overemphasis that has been placed on libel tourism. Islamist lawfare is a far larger threat that needs to be understood as such. Otherwise, we in the West will find ourselves further outflanked by Islamist entities with immense political and financial resources — and by a certain point, that could prove sufficient for radical Islam’s victory.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (25) | Leave a comment
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Konstantin | 9.15.09 @ 10:40AM
Very good idea _|
Pingback| 9.15.09 @ 9:53PM
Moe’s Jihad News — Winds Of Jihad By SheikYerMami links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 9.16.09 @ 3:47PM
Muntadhar al-Zeidi, Iraqi shoe thrower who attacked Bush, released « Islam: Human Rig links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Skip MacLure| 9.16.09 @ 3:55PM
I think it's significant that no one has commented on this article...Can it be because no one is interested? Or perhaps because we are treating Muslims, Islam, and the 'religion of peace' as the third rail of American commentary? Perhaps no one has noticed the intrusion of this foreign ideology into ours schools, our language, our workplaces and our legal and political systems.
Historically this has been the story of Islam. If military force does not suffice ...creep and then when sufficient strength of numbers has been attained.....assault. Witness Europe as we speak. Thank G-d they will find America a tougher nut to crack...Our tradition of individual freedom and responsibility is diametrically opposed to the mindset of Islam and it's inherent weakness, the inability to espouse the principles of truth and freedom....Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum.
Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis
Jeff Guthery| 9.16.09 @ 5:45PM
Keep your eye on Geert Wilder's trial in the Netherlands next year - probably the biggest fight against Islamist lawfare to date.
Pingback| 9.20.09 @ 12:17AM
Moderate Islam Watch — Winds Of Jihad By SheikYerMami links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Rachel Ehrenfeld | 9.20.09 @ 5:11PM
The Saudi billionaire and serial "libel tourist" Khalid bin Mahfouz is dead, but libel tourism continues to threaten Americans free speech rights. Sadly, Aaron Eitan Meyer misleads the reader to think that fighting for laws to protect Americans from libel tourism is "dangerous." Such a statement is astonishing from the assistant director of the Legal Project of the Middle East Forum, which uses the dire threat of libel tourism to raise funds for their own organization.
See: http://spectator.org/archives/.....m-deterred
Pingback| 3.28.10 @ 4:01PM
The jihad against free speech « Public Secrets links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
poptropica| 4.7.10 @ 10:58PM
Back in the day, I had three choices for playing electronic games: our brand-spankin’ new Atari 2600, my hand-held Mattel Football game, or the arcade at the mall. The kids these days just don’t know how good they have it: XBox, Playstation, Wii, PSP, DS, PC, online, download, kid-focused MMORPGs. The possibilities are nearly limitless. So when my daughter came home saying she really, really, really wanted to play an online game called Poptropica, I had to check it out for myself.
Poptropica is a free Flash-based game designed for kids ages 6 to 15. Created by the Family Education Network, Poptropica is a world that consists of many islands, each with their own set of problems and mysteries to solve. For example, on the Super Power island, you have to help recapture six criminals that have acquired super powers from a falling meteorite. As you travel across each island you must complete a number of tasks and challenges, each building upon the other.
While you are free to roam around the 2-D environment, some parts of each island are locked until you can accomplish certain goals. Thus, you can expect to make multiple trips into the game to “complete an island” and earn the coveted gold medallion. Fortunately, the game comes with a save feature. You will need to create a username and password to store your game. I recommend you write your info down on paper as well as there is not a password recovery feature.
The challenges on each island are very much age appropriate. Some are very simple and in the vein of classic adventure games since time immemorial, “I’ll tell you a secret, if you bring me the magic pig”. As you complete a task, you acquire achievements in the form of playing cards. Some cards can be enabled, such as the Jet Pack card, which lets you fly like a certain famous Mandalorian. For younger kids, be prepared to offer a little assistance as other tasks are a bit more complex, such as the secret decoder ring on Spy Island. And if your kid is stumped and you have run out of ideas yourself, you can always find walk-throughs on the internet.
As with many free online games, there are some advertisements in the game. The majority of them are embedded within appropriate locations. For example, I saw an ad for a new kid’s movie near a movie theater in the game. Some ads only appear for certain age groups, so don’t be surprised if your experience is different from someone else’s. It is important to note that the ads in no way affect how you obtain a gold medallion on an island.
There are currently eight islands in Poptropica: Early Poptropica, Shark Tooth Island, Time Tangled Island, Carrot Island, Super Power Island, Spy Island, Nabooti Island, Big Nate Island. The login page lists a 9th island set to arrive in 2009, Astro-Knights. There are bunch of previews and screenshots for the new island on the Poptropica blog.
All-in-all, this is a great site where geeklets can be introduced to online gaming. There are limited chat opportunities (no free chat at all). The games and challenges are simple yet extensive enough to keep them engaged and striving to help all of the citizens of Poptropica be rid of their island woes.
kiopi| 4.28.10 @ 3:00PM
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