JONATHAN TURLEY

England is investigating a highly disturbing video directed at child as an apparent recruiting device.  This follows other such children terrorism pitches — which mainstream Muslim groups have denounced.

The video below is highly disturbing and shows the depravity of those who claim to be fighting for Islam while killing innocent people and using children as vehicles for attacks. The English believe that there is a concerted effort to recruit kids as the perfect suicide bombers.

While Muslim groups have called for prosecution and denounced this disgusting tape (sold near a London mosque), there is a danger that our collective anger of this outrage will produce even greater attacks on free speech. In both England and the United States, the government are going after “violent speech.”

This is the case of the recent so-called lyrical terrorist, who was arrested for writing bad poetry about terrorism. Samina Malik is not likely to be a popular poet but it is unclear why she is a terrorist. The 23-year-old airport worker wrote poems about beheadings and her desire to become a martyr-=- listing here favorite videos as the “beheading ones”. It is a case of so-called violent speech and comes close to that of my client Dr. Ali Al-Timimi who was convicted of statements made at a dinner party. For a prior column on Al-Timimi (before I took over the case), click here The British laws have always been extremely fluid and uncertain on free speech. They have not been too controversial because of government restraint. However, the United States has now joined in an attack on free speech for any views that the majority deems unacceptable and threatening. The best protections against radicalism is not to force it underground but to deal with in an open debate. This was the genius of the Framers of the First Amendment.

For the video, click  here

This follows this video where Hamas used Mickey Mouse to call for violent acts.