On Wednesday Great Britain announced new guidelines for unacceptable activities that would trigger deportation or an entry ban from the country. One of these unacceptable activities is expressing opinions that “foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence” or seeking to provoke others to commit terrorist acts.
“You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if [Hugo Chavez] thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it … We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.”
Pat Robertson on Aug. 22, 2005
Hugo Chavez is the democratically elected leader of Venezuela. He has not been charged with, tried or convicted of any domestic or international crime. There is absolutely no justification to call for his summary execution. If killing him is not a terrorist activity, then terrorism has no meaning.
If Britain doesn’t think Pat Robertson’s statements above are not fomenting, justifying or glorifying the murder of Hugo Chavez, then they would be hard pressed to ban anyone who calls for the murder of others in the name of a different religion.
Pat Robertson in his so-called apology went on to make matters worse by directly justifying assassinations:
“The brilliant Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lived under the hellish conditions of Nazi Germany, is reported to have said:
“If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”
On the strength of this reasoning, Bonhoeffer decided to lend his support to those in Germany who had joined together in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and killed by the Nazis, but his example deserves our respect and consideration today.
There are many who disagree with my comments, and I respect their opinions. There are others who think that stopping a dictator is the appropriate course of action.”
If this isn’t considered an attempt to justify the violence he advocated earlier against Chavez (who, by the way, has a 70% popularity rating as president of Venezuela and cannot be called a dictator by any stretch of the imagination), then words cease to have meaning.
What will Britain do? Will they ignore these comments because they come from a Christian religious leader? If they do, they will clearly be making a mockery of their claim that their laws are not directed at Muslims. Do we live in a democracy or a hypocrisy?
It is Britain’s call. Will they ban Pat Robertson from entry into their country and lend a degree of credibility to their claim that this is not a war against Muslims or will they prove themselves first class hypocrites?