In the latest example of Western governments repudiating their own traditions of liberty, legendary English comedian and actor John Cleese has been reported to Prevent, the British government entity created to deter extremism. 5Pillars, a London-based Islamist media outlet, in a report about the complaint, wrote that Cleese’s jokes and commentary “go beyond legitimate criticism of Islam and instead portray Muslims collectively as violent, criminal and morally depraved.” This behavior, so the complaint alleges, may contribute to “radicalisation, communal tension, and hate incidents.”
There is, of course, the irony of an Islamist organization clutching its pearls over potential radicalization in a country whose own government has consistently publicly acknowledged that Islamic radicalism is a threat, as well as the fact that a large majority of the world’s roughly 50 Muslim-majority countries impose significant legal or practical restrictions on free expression.
But even more infuriating is the fact that so many elites reap the benefits of Western-originating freedoms while simultaneously hindering and prosecuting those hard-earned liberties.
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