Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Today is the big launch of the Middle East Forum's Legal Project: Conference on Islamist Lawfare - May 19th, Washington DC
The Legal Project, in conjunction with the Federalist Society, the Center for National Security Law, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, is pleased to present a conference on Islamist Lawfare, to be held on May 19th in Washington, DC. For the invitation, RSVP details, and list of conference participants, please click here.
An exciting project. No big surprise, the Council for American Islamic Relations is none-too pleased about a project geared toward defending Americans' free speech rights against the abuse of our court system, and crowing that they got Arlen Specter to cancel out of appearing: Sen. Specter Cancels Speech at Anti-Islam Event.
James Taranto will be attending, and he's skeptical that CAIR had anything to do with the cancellation:
...We forwarded the email to our friend Brooke Goldstein, the conference organizer, and she told us Specter had already bowed out two days earlier, citing an unspecified scheduling conflict.
We do not have a strong opinion as to whether, as CAIR puts it, "American Muslims are involved in a concerted effort to suppress free speech on Islam." Running a petition to pressure an elected official not to participate in a conference on the subject would seem, however, to fit that description.
As for Specter, his backing out of the conference could not have been a direct response to the CAIR petition, since the former predated the latter...
It's probably just as likely that the presence of the Federalist Society would keep Specter away as he attempts to make kissy with his new friends on the left. It's not surprise that an Islamic radical organization would denounce an event like this as being anti-Islam, given the Hamas brand of Islam they represent.
This is good news. This is the kind of response that is needed to counter the Islamic lawfare being waged against the West.
It was an historic conference. I was there. Great speakers: Gaffney, Dershowitz, Pipes, Andy MacCarthy. Douglas Murray is the funniest man alive. Important meeting because more and more people in the legal profession are learning about Islamist lawfare and how to combat it.
Charles Jacobs