Uthman Badar is entitled to be a bigot

The Sydney Opera House announcement of the cancellation of Mr Badar's session was all spin. Again, to his credit, Dr Longstaff later frankly acknowledged that the sole reason for the cancellation was the level of public outrage that Mr Badar's idea should even be discussed. Unfortunately, FODI has made itself look ridiculous.

Whingeing

Mr Badar rightly complains that FODI has displayed hypocrisy. But he and his supporters are pulling our legs in their portrayal of him as a free speech "victim"/hero.

After being axed from FODI 2014, Mr Badar conducted a media conference during which he declined to say whether or not he believed there were circumstances in which honour killings could be justified. Then, he laid the hyperbole on with a trowel, stating that he:

hadn't even opened my mouth and having not said anything, words were shoved in my mouth, outrage ensued, and of course that is the way Islamophobia works . . .

In truth, his authorship of the title, and prior advertising, of his idea was a crystal clear speech act which Mr Badar has affirmed repeatedly. Its effects, such as they are, continue. No words were "shoved in [his] mouth". He has had plenty to say, including one television interview accessible via his FaceBook page, and the heavens have not fallen. But the arguments favouring his idea remain a closely guarded secret.

Self-censorship or self-help?

It is baffling to this observer why Mr Badar is being so coy. Why not, without further ado, call another media conference to announce that he has published on theHizb ut-Tahrir Australia web site the talk which, when the squeals went up, FODI decided was just too outrageous a challenge to mainstream thought and opinion for it to host in an event with such a pretentious title?

Mr Badar doth protest far too much

The overwhelming majority of Australians have to live with the unpalatable knowledge that Mr Badar was willing to propound his "dangerous" idea. Mr Badar has to live with the unpalatable knowledge that, like the CPA's dictatorship of the proletariat, theocracy is not a goer in Australia: To borrow Lord Denning's words, "Freedom once given cannot be taken away".