James Kottak, the drummer for the rock band Scorpions, has been sentenced to one month in jail in the United Arab Emirates for conduct offensive to Islam. This reportedly included raising his middle finger and insulting the faith.
Kottak, 51, was arrested on April 3rd on a flight from Russia to Bahrain. The band was scheduled to perform at a Formula One race. Kottak was arrested in the transit hall and admitted that he had been drinking but denied other charges. He reportedly made comments about “uneducated Muslims” and flashed his middle finger. Witnesses accused him of cursing all Muslims and Islam.
It is a chilling example of how the blasphemy laws in these countries are applied. Such comments would be treated as entirely protected in the United States. For many years, I have been writing about the threat of an international blasphemy standard and the continuing rollback on free speech in the West. For recent columns, click here and here and here.
Much of this writing has focused on the effort of the Obama Administration to reach an accommodation with allies like Egypt to develop a standard for criminalizing anti-religious speech. We have been following the rise of anti-blasphemy laws around the world, including the increase in prosecutions in the West and the support of the Obama Administration for the prosecution of some anti-religious speech under the controversial Brandenburg standard.
This is a typical example of the application of such a standard. Kottak’s comments can simply be defined as causing imminent violence or social unrest to justify a blasphemy prosecution.
Source: BBC
jonathanturley
Simms, I have no sympathy for his conduct. However, that does not make these laws appalling and worthy of international condemnation. This is protected speech and goes to a basic human right in my view.
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I agree.
Kinda like our system, or the attempt to establish our system, where states have rights to be states and make their individual and different laws, but those state laws cannot violate the constitutional principles that the supreme law sets up (human rights, inviolable constitutional rights), and neither can the overall government violate those supreme rights (the federal government can’t violate those rights).
Very good theory of government in my estimation.
Our violation of that vision, of late, is leading us into decline:
(Economic War Of The Pacific – 3).
Insulting Islam occurred in the Benghazi episode when an anti-Muslim video was blamed for the attack on the embassy and murder of four Americans, including an Ambassador that served at the Presidential level. The “smoking gun” regarding the employment and presentation of the video as cause is revealed in the following article:
White House
Benghazi emails suggest White House aide involved in prepping Rice for ‘video’ explanation
Catherine Herridge
Newly released emails on the Benghazi terror attack suggest a senior White House aide played a central role in preparing former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice for her controversial Sunday show appearances — where she wrongly blamed protests over an Internet video.
More than 100 pages of documents were released to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Among them was a Sept. 14, 2012, email from Ben Rhodes, an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.
The Rhodes email, with the subject line: “RE: PREP Call with Susan: Saturday at 4:00 pm ET,” was sent to a dozen members of the administration’s inner circle, including key members of the White House communications team such as Press Secretary Jay Carney.
In the email, Rhodes specifically draws attention to the anti-Islam Internet video, without distinguishing whether the Benghazi attack was different from protests elsewhere.
The email lists the following two goals, among others:
“To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.”
“To reinforce the President and Administration’s strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.”
The email goes on to state that the U.S. government rejected the message of the Internet video. “We find it disgusting and reprehensible. But there is absolutely no justification at all for responding to this movie with violence,” the email stated.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the documents read like a PR strategy, not an effort to provide the best available intelligence to the American people.
“The goal of the White House was to do one thing primarily, which was to make the president look good. Blame it on the video and not [the] president’s policies,” he said.
The Rhodes email was not part of the 100 pages of emails released by the administration last May — after Republicans refused to move forward with the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA director until the so-called “talking points” emails were made public.
The email is also significant because in congressional testimony in early April, former deputy CIA director Michael Morell told lawmakers it was Rice, in her Sunday show appearances, who linked the video to the Benghazi attack. Morell said the video was not part of the CIA analysis.
“My reaction was two-fold,” Morell told members of the House Intelligence Committee, regarding her appearances. “One was that what she said about the attacks evolving spontaneously from a protest was exactly what the talking points said, and it was exactly what the intelligence community analysts believed. When she talked about the video, my reaction was, that’s not something that the analysts have attributed this attack to.”
Incidentally, three leading Republicans on Monday night sent letters to the House and Senate foreign affairs committees asking them to compel the administration to explain who briefed Rice in advance of the Sunday talk shows and whether State Department or White House personnel were involved.
“How could former Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, during the five Sunday talk shows on September 16, 2012, claim that the attacks on our compounds were caused by a hateful video when Mr. Morell testified that the CIA never mentioned the video as a causal factor,” said the letter, from Sens. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina; Kelly Ayotte, of New Hampshire; and John McCain, of Arizona.
The Sept. 14 Rhodes email does not indicate whether there was a “prep call” for Rice, as it suggests. If the call went ahead, it does not indicate who briefed her.
National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan played down the Rhodes email, telling Fox News in a statement: “There were protests taking place across the region in reaction to an offensive internet video, so that’s what these points addressed. There were known protests in Cairo, Sanaa, Khartoum, and Tunis as well as early reports of similar protests in Benghazi, which contributed to questions of how the attack began…. These documents only serve to reinforce what we have long been saying: that in the days after September 11, 2012, we were concerned by unrest occurring across the region and that we provided our best assessment of what was happening at the time.”
The statement did not address Fox News’ specific questions asking whether White House personnel, particularly Rhodes, briefed Rice before the Sunday shows, and what intelligence Rhodes relied on when he referred to the video.
The newly released emails also show that on Sept. 27, 2012 a Fox News report — titled “US officials knew Libya attack was terrorism within 24 hours, sources confirm” — was circulated at the most senior levels of the administration. This included going to then-deputy national security adviser Denis McDonough; then-White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan; Morell; and Rhodes, among others, but the comments were redacted, citing “personal privacy information.”
Dr Turley. Here are my thoughts on what you have been writing on the anti blasphemy laws’ support by this administration:
The cult (as you call it) is comprised of people who want to believe that they are “so” progressive that race does not bother them (even when the same character in another skin would have caused them to call him all sorts of names). The other main reason for this “cult” is the defense mechanism of reaction formation, that is deep down inside they are racists but are too ashamed of that and to negotiate with that they support him , no matter whether its his anti blasphemy law support or anything else like that…
“Our first drummer died in a bizarre gardening accident.”
“Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and…
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don’t know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.”
simm, you said in the US no one has been arrested for criticizing Islam, so you do not think that the main reason the producer of the you tube movie that ridiculed Islam was arrested mainly for that reason, and to please blood hungry beasts who call themselves to be the followers of the peaceful religion?
Not sure if Kottak was flying first class or coach. Some of these
celebrities just can’t hold their booze no matter where the flight is going.
Guess what would set me off? Sitting between two people, twice as large
as me. And a six year old with the chair in front, fully inclined. Help! Help!
Just one more reason to not travel to these countries, even as only via a connecting flight.
When in Rome, do as the Romans.
countries not counties
Oh, please. I have absolutely no sympathy for this little twit. Our constitutional rights do not travel with us outside of the United States. I’m not excusing the UAE for their draconian laws, but it’s the traveler’s job to know the laws of the country he is visiting.
I would never voluntarily travel to the UAE, Saudi Arabia or any such country because I abhor their laws and attitudes toward women. But, if for some reason I was compelled to travel to such a country, I would make sure I knew the law and I would comply with that law. That’s because it is not…my…country. I would have no rights there.
I can’t remember any arrests in the United States for criticizing Muslims, Muhammad or Muslim counties.
Simms, I have no sympathy for his conduct. However, that does not make these laws appalling and worthy of international condemnation. This is protected speech and goes to a basic human right in my view.
Jonathan – much as I would like to agree, I think I have to come down on the ‘my country, my laws’ side.
Didn’t this happen in Spinal Tap??
So many fundamental legal questions can be answered by the viewing of Spinal Tap.
If an 18″ Stonehenge drops during the performance, it was Spinal Tap
Again, we don’t have to point our fingers overseas for outrageous assault on free speech. We have more political correctness right here at home that far exceeds all of that of all the other nations combined. What does it say about a people, when an Al Sharpton or a reverend Wright go racist on whites, without losing a nickel’s worth of skin off their asses, but whenever a white person is racist, he loses his job, his reputation and everything he has ever owned? There are blacks that feel exactly as I do, because they are honest blacks. Every single one of us, no matter the ethnicity, is raceist to one degree or another, but just not out loud. Too many of us vote to convict as compensation, to conceal and obfuscate our own guilt.
Take your choice, a drunk passenger or a crazy pilot who
knows where to ditch a jet…And nobody will ever find it.
I have a friend FBI agent who worked in Anchorage. Alaska has a huge alcohol problem combined w/ a frontier mentality. He was always being dispatched to the airport to remove drunks. The guy was a veteran agent but these calls bothered him more than any. We were staying @ his house once when he got one of these calls. The veins were sticking out of his neck when he got back home. A couple of bourbons helped.
Perhaps a more appropriate reason for detaining this person would be for arrogance and drunkenness. While religion is fair game for criticism, arrogance and drunkenness serve no greater good.
I certainly do not approve of drunks on planes which are the bane of all of our existences. However, it appears the comment and the finger gesture that prompted the charges.
We are being continuously lectured on how Muslims feel unfairly identified with intolerance and hostility to free speech. This is just another example of how hollow those lectures are. At a minimum they are easily offended and feel that their offense must result in our speech being curtailed. The reason people want to us to be very quiet about criticizing Islam is that we might get blown up or in this case sent to Jail.
Don’t go to the UAE. Our universities and museums are rushing there for the MONEY. It will be instructive when an “offensive” work of art or course slips through the censor and some University official goes to jail. In a way, I cannot wait.
Don’t go to Dubai. Don’t go to Saudi Arabia. Don’t send any American tax payer dollars to the ME either. We need to stop supporting this kind of behavior.
Good thing Ozzie Osbourne wasn’t on that flight. He’d being doing life.
What a surprise. Not. This is Islam. The insanity is in America where Christianity is insulted continuously.
Hmmm. Arrested on an international flight?
Have you been following the controversy on the tape to be used at the Twin Towers Memorial? Muslims do not want the words Muslim, Islam or jihad used in the tape.