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| Berkeley, California Hates Hate-Speech |
| 2007-05-18 |
| A British stand-up has been accused of spreading ‘racist hate speech’ in California. Pat Condell has faced a barrage of criticism after links to his anti-Muslim monologue on YouTube were circulated to commissioners in the city of Berkeley. In the five-minute video, Condell condemns Islam as a religion of war and its prophet Mohammad as ‘some rambling ancient desert nomad with a psychological disorder’. He attacks fundamentalist men as ‘primitive pigs whose only achievement in life is to be born with a penis is one hand and a Koran in the second’ and accuses women who wear veils of their own will of being ‘mentally ill’. ‘If God had intended for you to cover your face then in His wisdom He would have provided you with a flap of skin for the purpose,’ he said. Jonathan Wornick, who is on the ‘peace and justice commission’ adivisng Berkeley city council emailed his colleagues with the link, saying it was ‘an honest attempt to bring dialogue’. But his actions have caused a political storm. Commissioner Michael Sherman said Condell’s views were ‘stunning’ because of his ‘stereotyping and bigotry of the tone and the language’. And commissioner Elliot Cohen called the tape ‘insulting, degenerating and racist’. ‘People should not be allowed to spew racist propaganda without others being able to respond,’ Cohen said. ‘It’s not about free speech - it’s hate speech.’ Condell, an atheist, has released a number of monologues on the internet, criticising all religions. The anti-Islamic video has been seen almost 16,000 times on YouTube and more than 190,000 times on another file sharing site, LiveLeak. |
| Posted by:Sneaze |