The "right" to respond

The law students who launched the Mark Steyn human-rights complaints (actually, Mohammed Elmasry launched the complaints, but never mind) state their case in the Montreal Gazette:

In our case we have filed human-rights complaints, not because Maclean's published 19 inflammatory articles focused on Muslims, but because it refused to publish a mutually acceptable counter-article on the first occasion that the Muslim community asked for one.

The issue is the right of our community to participate in Canada's national discourse on issues that relate directly to us, and not to be excluded. The objective is not to take a discussion of Islam off the table, but to make that discussion more inclusive.

A Google search shows that the students have recently been published in The Globe and Mail, the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the London Free Press, the Toronto Sun, the Toronto Star and even the National Post. Frankly, I'd say more people have had the chance to read their position on the issue than the Maclean's book excerpt that started the whole mess.

My suggestion to them would be that they start a blog. At some places they can do it for free, for crying out loud. And then, when they post something that offends me, they have to give me all the space I want to respond on their site, since that's evidently an inalienable human right these days.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at February 25, 2008 07:41 AM