Spineless Canadian courts/legislature.

Here's a 2002 court case in Ontario that we'd never heard of. A Mr. Mark Harding was convicted of a crime for distributing pamphlets about Islam outside a school in Ontario.

Reading the article, we could not but conclude that everything Mr. Harding said about Islam was truth and clarity itself.

He also objected to the policy of providing Muslims a separate room in government schools in which to pray during school hours while not making similar accommodations for Christians, Hindus, or Buddhists.

Requiring this penniless man to serve out 340 hours (42 days!) of court-imposed "community" service under the direction of Mohammad Ashraf, general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga, Ont., evinces a perverse judicial commitment to personal humiliation of the "criminal" in question.

The judge in the case who convicted Mr. Harding was Judge Sidney B. Linden. The community service provision was to be served under the direction of the aforementioned Islamic society –- a mere three hours from Mr. Harding's home.

The case is a dramatic example of the pernicious nature of hate crime laws, in this case Canada's genocide and hate-crimes law.

We're not well versed in hate crime nonsense in the U.S. but, notwithstanding such foolish laws, we are under the impression that the First Amendment still is a substantial limitation on government officials' examining the content of what one says here to determine if it is "appropriate," i.e., not seditious; not offensive; not "hateful;" not unkind; not mean-spirited; not evidencing non=establishment views on race, religion, and culture; or not telling too much truth about government excess and hypocrisy.

One delicious irony in the case is that where the "community" service was to be performed was at the Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga, Ont.

Yum, yum.

Mississauga is, you will recall, Dear Reader, is the site of recent arrests of a gaggle of Muslims youths alleged to be part of an alleged Muslims terror ring, which had purchased three tons of an explosive chemical. Mr. Harding's highly, highly offensive, misguided, hate-filled, mean-spirited, criminal pamphlet said this about local Muslims:

The Muslims who commit these crimes are no different than the Muslim believers living here in Toronto. Their beliefs are based on the Quran. They sound peaceful, but underneath their false sheep's clothing are raging wolves seeking whom they may devour. And Toronto is definitely on their hit list.

How stupid and vicious can one human being be?

"Punishment includes Islam indoctrination. Canadian to resume hate-crimes sentence under Muslim direction." By Art Moore, WorldNetDaily.com, 10/31/02 <-- "Religion of Peace."