Post below lifted from Daily Ablution

News of a Sydney theatrical production called Honour Bound - during which "in a vast steel cage, six performers, choreographed superbly by Garry Stewart, are surrounded by projected texts and video, enveloped in sound and voices, and awash with light .as they fly, hang or turn in the air" - recalls to our attention the case of David Hicks, an Australian Guantanamo detainee described in promotional material for an earlier film as "a freedom fighter for Islam".

Needless to say, the appeasers and apologists are fawning over the piece - the heady combination of dance, aerial performance and support for Taliban freedom fighters is obviously irresistable to those in certain circles, among them the editor of the Australian arts publication RealTime:

"The quest for national security as part of the `war on terror' has become an excuse for a radical reduction in human rights by governments around the world, most blatantly in the case of the US incarceration of David Hicks."

Such thoughts would be incorrect, however, as our dance-reviewer-cum-moral-philosopher reminds us:

"Hicks has become a living symbol of what could happen to any citizen given the draconian nature of Australia's anti-terror legislation..."

"... and that includes the special place it holds for journalists, cartoonists and artists, all less than assured by John Howards' `trust me.'"

"Australian artists of many kinds and in many media have kept their audiences alert to the issues pertaining to refugees, political spin and the escalating erosion of social democracy. Filmmaker Curtis Levy's documentary The President versus David Hicks has been widely seen. Now writer-director-designer Nigel Jamieson, with ADT's Garry Stewart, sound designer Paul Charlier, video artist Scott Otto Anderson and co-designer Nick Dare, brings a multimedia performance perspective to one man's plight and the ramifications for social democracy."

Although insignificant on an individual level, the views of the unnamed RealTime editor are worthy of passing note in that they mirror those which characterise a particular mindset on the left. As he's more influential, those of Chris Levy - director of the film about the noble "freedom fighter for Islam" - are perhaps more interesting. To examine them brings us even greater insight into the mentality of the terror-apologist - and the willful blindness and the contorted justifications are quite literally jaw-dropping.

Those with strong stomachs are directed to the complete 2004 interview with the World Socialist Web Site, in which Mr. Levy describes the Australian Taliban member - who "became a fervent Muslim because he saw it as a way of redressing the injustice he saw in the world" -  as "a caring and considerate kind of person", an "ordinary person", who was "misled into supporting undesirable groups".

It's admittedly unusual to hear the likes of Mr. Levy describe the Taliban with such strong language as "undesirable" - but he hastens to point out that this harsh description in no way applies to Mr. Hicks, despite his proud boasts of Taliban membership:

"I don't see him as undesirable or anything remotely like that. I find him a fascinating character and hope to meet him some day."

"That's true. But from my reading of the letters [to his father], he always seemed to retain a fairly innocent or na‹ve outlook-someone caught up in something he didn't fully understand."

"Mohammed's food you shall be fed/To disagree, so off with your head."

Need it really be said yet again? Must we really continue to call attention to the utter moral bankruptcy of a "progressive" mindset so warped by blind anti-Americanism that it views people like Mr. Hicks as "not even remotely undesirable"?

Given the adulatory reception of such work as Honour Bound, the sad answer seems to be an unqualified "yes".

Postscript: David Hicks was granted British citizenship in December, 2005.

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