Opinion: ‘What the United Nations Gets Wrong About Fighting Anti-Semitism’

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Opinion: ‘What the United Nations…

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NOTE: The opinions expressed in the article linked below are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of AntisemitismExposed.org.

Emilie Kao and Joel Griffith of the conservative Washington, D.C.–based think tank The Heritage Foundation offer what many undoubtedly consider to be a contrarian and incorrect position on the issue of prohibiting “hate speech.” See what you think.

Kao is the director of The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society; Griffith is a research fellow in the think tank’s Roe Institute.

Quote: “Finally, it’s worth noting that Europe’s Holocaust denial laws fail to address the roots of hatred, and have not prevented the growth of anti-Semitic parties in Austria, France and Germany. They may even be counterproductive. Criminal prosecutions give anti-Semites added notoriety and a persecution narrative to exploit.”

Sources: Wikipedia, Newsweek

Learn more about The Heritage Foundation on Wikipedia. >>

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“[T]he foundations for extremism usually are held in check by various restraints. Societies are not liberal, moderate, progressive, and free because almost all their citizens – let alone their politicians — are liberal, moderate, progressive or committed to the freedoms of others.

“But societies consistently avoid extremism when the infrastructures of freedom are strong: when key institutions and norms encourage a more decent, rights-respective, lawful politics; when powerful social movements and independent media hold leaders to account, expose rather than reinforce political fantasies, and champion the rights of the vulnerable; and when information is produced and scrutinized by scholars, civil servants, and non-governmental organizations devoid of either government repression or vested interests.

“Yet no infrastructure is rigidly immovable, and once key components are eroded and weakened, once sections of the political and cultural elite attempt to mobilize the foundations of extremism, the system of restraints can swiftly collapse.

“While genocide on the scale of the Holocaust is historically exceptional, its central lesson is that the broader danger of extreme atrocities is not. In the words of the great historian Ian Kershaw, the Holocaust ‘lit a warning beacon that still burns brightly: it showed how a modern, advanced, cultured society can so rapidly sink into barbarity… It showed what we are capable of.’ Only by rejecting false narratives of conflict and polarization, and maintaining systems of rights and freedoms for all, can we hope to prevent that capability from once more becoming a reality.”

— Jonathan Leader Maynard in his incisive article “Could It Happen Here?: The Holocaust and Atrocities in the 21st Century” To read the entire article, click here.