He was, in a very real sense, Hizbullah’s man in New York City.
A New York businessman dubbed by a prosecutor as “Hizbullah’s man in New York City” was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in prison for airing the Hizbullah-sponsored Al Manar television station to his New York customers.
The businessman, Javed Iqbal, a Pakistani immigrant, was ordered by a federal judge in Manhattan to serve 5 years and 9 months for broadcasting the Lebanese terrorist organization’s network among stations he sent to his New York customers.
Iqbal ran his business from a Brooklyn storefront and the garage of his Staten Island home, which had satellite dishes in his backyard.
Iqbal’s lawyer, Joshua L. Dratel, had earlier argued that his client was applying his First Amendment Rights that guarantee freedom of speech and providing satellite TV services. However, Judge Richard M. Berman rejected Dratel’s argument, ruling that the prosecution wasn’t based on content of speech but on conduct – claims that he financed an international terrorist organization.
Iqual’s defense attorney furthermore argued that his client’s airing the Hizbullah station wasn’t based on ideological reasons, but on a “discrete and narrow aspect of an otherwise legitimate” business. Dratel cited as proof that Iqual also broadcast Christian broadcasting and adult entertainment, which he said was “180 degrees from Islamic fundamentalism.”
Nevertheless, federal prosecutor Eric Snyder disagreed, stating that Iqbal helped get out the terrorist group’s message. Calling Hizbullah a “sophisticated terrorist organization in all respects,” Snyder said that the group had used its round the clock channel to recruit members and suicide members and to raise funding for weaponry and operations. The prosecutor noted that Hizbullah had killed more Americans than any other terrorist group prior to September 11, 2001.
“He was, in a very real sense, Hizbullah’s man in New York City,” Snyder stated. “He did all this to bring the Hizbullah operations to our shores, to allow Hizbullah to have their operations here in New York City. That’s a very dangerous thing. That’s what this crime is about,” Snyder added.
Dutch Editor Defends Freedom of Speech
While a U.S. court recognized the limits of freedom of speech by sentencing Iqbal, a Danish editor defended freedom of speech, even at the expense of human lives. Flemming Rose, editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published 12 cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in 2005 that led to an outbreak of Muslim riots which killed over 50 people, said that the clashes were attempts by Muslims to impose Islamic law on non-Muslim countries. In a news conference at Jerusalem's Hebrew University on Thursday, Rose said that the way to fight intolerance is by freedom of expression, not by limiting it.
Rose said he feels no remorse for his decision, but could not give a straight answer as to whether he would do it again. “If I said I wouldn’t do it again, it would send a very bad message to those who committed crimes and intimidations, and would in fact be telling them: If you keep this up, we will do whatever you want.”