New York Post
How do you say “free speech” in Dutch? Apparently, you don’t.
Dutch MP Geert Wilders appeared yesterday in an Amsterdam court to face criminal charges for, essentially, criticizing Islam.
The hate-speech charges stem largely from Wilders’ film warning of the Islamization of Europe, which connected verses from the Koran with scenes of Islamist terror.
If convicted, he faces up to two years in jail.
Actually, he might consider such a sentence a lucky break: In 2004, Islamist assassin Mohammed Bouyeri gunned down Theo Van Gogh, one of the last Dutchmen to make a movie critical of radical Islam.
After the shooting, Bouyeri used a knife to affix a five-page note threatening Jews — and the West in general — to Van Gogh’s dead body.
Add to that, say, the attempts on the life of Danish “Muhammad cartoonist” Kurt Westergaard and the creeping reach of Sharia law in Britain, and you have ample grounds for a hard look at the impact on Europe’s political and cultural fabric of a growing and assertive Muslim population.
Yet the courts appear set on aiding the thugs with guns in squelching all debate.
Wilders, to be sure, is hardly a posterboy for free speech and liberal democracy: Some of his proposals for dealing with the issue — including banning the Koran — are as offensive as the show trial he now faces.
But last time we checked, confident, free societies don’t lock people up for simply expressing their views.
Holland is rapidly becoming anything but.
From Islamization Watch:
The “Racist” Ruse:
The effort to tar Geert Wilders as a racist goes against what he has been saying. The court case is strangely trying to say – that if you criticize the Koran and Islam – then you are racist. Wilders’ own statements don’t back racism – so the court case is based around the theory that Wilders is a racist because of his criticism of Islam – but what is really happening is that racism is being used to silence criticism of Islam and to quash or curtail free speech.
It is very similar to the defamation of Islam measure being put forward by Muslim nations in the UN – which seeks an outright international ban on questioning or challenging Islam in any way. But since Islam is not a person – and human rights protects people and not ideas – such as is Islam – developed nations are against the measure. Ultimately what they hope to achieve is special protection for Islam and Muslims – that is the cornerstone of Shari’a law – which upholds the supremacy of Islam and Muslims. This is contrary to what we understand as free.
Thank God for blogs and websites that are really the only outlet for this type of information. Â As you know we cover this stuff every single day. Â It’s getting worse and worse, but US and international media don’t cover it that much because there’s really no story to tell when you might offend a large religion.
Clifford May at National Review writes: Â The War Against the Infidels -Â Terrorism is only one of the weapons.
[…] Connect these dots:
- In Nigeria this week, Muslim youths set fire to a church, killing more than two dozen Christian worshippers.
- In Egypt, Coptic Christians have been suffering increased persecution including, this month, a drive-by shooting outside a church in which seven people were murdered.
- In Pakistan, Christian churches were bombed over Christmas.
- In Turkey, authorities have been closing Christian churches, monasteries, and schools, and seizing Christian properties.
- Recently, churches in Malaysia have been attacked, too, provoked by this grievance: Christians inside the churches were referring to God as “Allah.” How dare infidels use the same name for the Almighty as do Muslims!
In response to all this, Western journalists, academics, diplomats, and politicians mainly avert their eyes and hold their tongues. They pretend there are no stories to be written, no social pathologies to be documented, no actions to be taken. They focus instead on Switzerland’s vote against minarets and anything Israel might be doing to prevent terrorists from claiming additional victims.
Read it all from infidels are cool: media stays silent
Just curious: who shut up Michael Savage? The Salvation army? That’s  what he used to say, here. What have you heard from him lately?
Here’s a pic of Wilders audience at Temple. No wonder  the message is shouted down…