Vance Calls Out the European Commissars And the leftist authoritarians are furious. by Robert Spencer
https://www.frontpagemag.com/__trashed-3/
JD Vance was about to say “European Commissioners,” but he stopped himself, and instead said “European Commissars.” This was no slip of the tongue. Vance clearly had in mind the commissars of the old Soviet Union, and as he was addressing, at the Munich Security Conference, a roomful of their intellectual children and heirs, his choice of words was entirely apt. Vance was there to call out these cosseted elites, who aren’t used to being called out, and the predictable rage has ensued. But the vice president’s message was prophetic. If European leaders were interested in maintaining their countries as free societies, they would heed him.
“Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today,” Vance said, “it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners. I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be, quote, ‘hateful content.’ I look to my own country, where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of, quote, ‘combating misogyny on the internet, a day of action.’”
Vance continued by referring to the flashpoint for the freedom of speech today, the point at which it is most heatedly disputed: the burning of the Qur’an. “I look to Sweden,” he said, “where two weeks ago the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Koran burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder. As the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant, and I’m quoting, ‘a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.’”
If speech can be shut down for giving offense to some group, there is no freedom of speech at all. Speech has legal protections in the first place so that tyrants cannot use the excuse of offense to shut down dissent. The freedom of speech is the indispensable foundation of any free society, and as Vance dared to point out, in Sweden, as in Europe as a whole, it is severely threatened.
The ”Christian activist” to which Vance referred was an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden named Salwan Najem. His friend who was murdered was Salwan Momika, who had burned the Qur’an several times. Momika had been scheduled to appear in a Stockholm court for the crime of inciting racial hatred by burning the Qur’an, but didn’t show up: he had been murdered for the same acts.
Momika had been charged with “agitation against an ethnic or national group” for burning the Qur’an, which was ridiculous on its face: Momika was Iraqi, after all, and was setting fire to the Islamic book not because he wanted to agitate against Muslims, but because he wanted to call attention to the violence and oppression that the Qur’an inspires those who believe in it to commit.
Burning books is associated with National Socialism and with the forcible suppression of ideas, and so many people regard it with unalloyed horror. Momika, however, was not burning the Qur’an because he wanted to conceal what it says, but because he wanted to draw attention to what it says. The Swedish government should have hailed Momika as a hero of the freedom of expression; instead it vilified and persecuted him.
Back in March 2024, Momika explained what was at stake: “The persecution I am subjected to in Sweden is tantamount to defending Islam and supporting the project of Islamizing Sweden and the West, granting asylum and protecting Islamists, and while those who criticize Islam are expelled and persecuted, this means that the law on freedom of expression is in real danger and Islamic values may be imposed on Western societies and the application of Sharia law. Islamism will inevitably come to them unless we take action.” And now his murder proves that he was one hundred percent correct.
Salwan Momika should have been protected as a hero of the freedom of expression, daring to risk his life to call attention to the oppression and violence that is carried out in accord with Qur’anic teaching. Instead, he was persecuted by both countries, vilified, exposed to danger, denounced, and now murdered. Salwan Momika’s fate demonstrates in microcosm what will happen to freedom in both countries. JD Vance showed in Munich that he was well aware of this, and called upon European leaders to mend their ways. But will they heed?
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