The Authors Right to Speak

On the 23^rd May 2009 Taxi went to Sydney Theatre to attend the Writers Festival initiated “The Authors Right to Speak”. Rumour says, the news of Taxi’s possible presence made Dr. Anne Summers absent. However, most of the speakers amongst the five on stage and the MC were fairly O.K. but Neil James and a Pommy called Monica Ali was very militant and blatantly anti-Muslim and anti-Arab. In their manner and presentation they were more aggressive and prejudiced than any misguided mullahs. It became obvious that they love to talk to themselves and not to consider others opinions whether valid or invalid! At the end, amongst the big crowed they only took only one question. Taxi got annoyed and yelled, “where is the free speech here, you elitists? I will give you some ‘Salman Rushdie’ if you like”. But there was a wary silence! Taxi shouted again, “You gutless wonders, you talk about free speech and there is none for us”!

Considering the vile and brutal manner of Ali and Neil, Taxi formulated his sermon for the night in a similar manner to expose their style and prejudice:

1. The Greek democracy was good (?) because they have excluded women, slaves, and many others.

2. The German democracy was wonderful because they have excluded the Gypsies and many others including a few Jews.

3. The modern day Jewish democracy is fantastic (?) because they too exclude the non-Jewish person i.e. the Arab Muslims, Christians, etc.

1. Monica, “would you like to support an epic tale of Jewish “Mishnah”? i.e. A girl of the age of 3 years and a day may be betrothed, subject to her father's approval, by sexual intercourse.
2. Monica, “will you encourage a novel based on the 3000 wives, concubines and a few dozens boyfriend of King David”?
3. Monica, “do you like to support a drama based on the Jewish Sharia like a non Jewish woman should be stoned to death should she be raped by a Jewish man”?

But Taxi could not ask his questions publicly! So he went on to address those elite authors who were now off stage and sitting in public and signing their own books for them. He delivered the articles below, and a few more well written articles in addition to those then handed them over and said, “free speech should be for all or for none. If we are allowed to insult one religion then we must be allowed to insult all religions. No one should be supporting elitism. My name, phone, email and web links are here on these documents. You are welcome to answer me in any format you want and whenever you want”. He also distributed the same interesting articles inside the venue to others with some wonderful results.

Hope they answer Taxi’s queries freely! Remember The Authors Right to Speak Freely is the issue.