RUTHFULLY YOURS

Alykhan Velshi is an Ismaili Muslim, in the noble modernist tradition of A.A. Fyzee, who graduated with a law degree from The London School of Economics. In July, 2005 he wrote these frank words published at NRO:

The war on terror is not simply against terror-sponsoring states, but against the institutions of civil society that give terrorists quiet support, that inflame local Muslim populations, and that prevent the emergence of a moderate, peaceful form of Islam. The war on terror can never be won unless Muslims who have the privilege of living in the West stand up for civilization against the forces of barbarism and nihilism. I wish I could say otherwise, but I won’t be holding my breath.

The intrepid Velshi  is now challenging Saudi Arabia’s oil revenue funded Islamic religious bigotry — with an emphasis on the Kingdom’s particularly oppressive misogyny — via an advertising campaign (and website) promoting the idea’s put forth in Ezra Levant’s 2010 book Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada’s Oil Sands.

And the incensed Saudis are counter-attacking with a legal jihad aimed at quashing this advertising campaign. Velshi, as reported by the Toronto Sun, condemned this legal and ethical challenge by the Saudis and their minions:

We caught this foreign dictatorship trying to undermine freedom of the press here in Canada and trying to export its own contempt for democracy, its own contempt for freedom of the press here in Canada.

Watch the “Ethical Oil” advertisement to which the Saudis took such umbrage here.

The advertisement is an invaluable, Western freedom-based tool that must be part of our broader armamentarium for Saudi-independent energy  — i.e., continued development of Canadian tar sands, and US shale oil and gas.