Is this Mark Steyn?
But Canada, alas, is also the land of political correctness and, I suspect, a certain amount of fear.
I should have guessed this when I was told that a group of Arab Muslim residents of Ottawa, Montreal and London, Ontario, objected to my reports of the Syrian civil war; so enraged were they that one faction in Ottawa sent an extraordinary, imperishable email to the organisers of my lectures. “If you believe in free speech,” it said, “please cancel [the Speaker’s] tour.” Bravo!
Is this Pamela Geller?
At one venue I was due to speak in a mosque about the Arab Awakening – and the gents and ladies of this particular Muslim clique managed to persuade their brothers and sisters that it might be a good idea if I did not speak there. The town’s volunteers, a fine bunch of folk with years of sterling work behind them in promoting debates on the real Middle East, felt they had no option but to step back from the mosque venue. And no other hall was available for my talk that night.
Is this Bat Yeor?
Not so now in one Canadian town. There these same pressures worked for the Arab Muslims who wanted to prevent me speaking. The venue was changed to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where I spoke to a far larger audience – and in a Catholic college. Another victory for Islam.
