On Wednesday, freedom of speech in Europe took a new and
devastating turn, as a Dutch appellate court ordered the
prosecution of Geert Wilders, parliamentarian and filmmaker,
charging him
with "inciting hatred and discrimination" against Muslims for his
film exposing the threat of radical Islam.
This ruling comes a mere six months after the public prosecutor's
office found Wilders' dialogue contributed to the debate on Islam
and that he had not committed any criminal offense. Now,
curiously, the court has done an about-face and
decreed that charges may be brought against the politician,
and that prosecuting him is somehow in "the public interest."
After releasing a ten-minute self-produced film entitled
"Fitna,"
Wilders found himself wound up in a litany of "hate speech"
litigation, one such suit filed by a radical Imam asking for
55,000 Euros in compensation for his hurt feelings.
Ironically, the film's narrative is primarily comprised of quotes
from the Koran which incite violence and death to "infidels" as
well as scenes of an Imam preaching death to the Jews. Akin to
something out of the Twilight Zone, the Imams who
routinely spout hate speech from the pulpit and who are
instigating these suits are never themselves charged with
incitement to immediate violence. Moreover if the film
"Fitna," which merely quotes the Koran and depicts angry Imams,
is "hate speech" then what is the Koran itself?
Suspiciously, the wording of the appellate court's ruling
strongly echoes public criticism made by the 57-nation
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) when the earlier
prosecution was dropped, where the OIC censured
prosecutors for ignoring the "thin line separating freedom of
speech and the instigation of hatred, animosity and
discrimination."
Even more disturbing is that the State of Jordan, most likely
acting as a stalking horse for the OIC, has issued
a request for Wilders' extradition to stand trial in Jordan for
blasphemy of Islam, a crime for which Shari'a law declares the
penalty to be death. The Dutch parliament has taken the
extradition request very seriously, and has shut out Wilders from
all multi-lateral negotiations. As a precaution, Wilders no
longer travels abroad unless he can obtain a diplomatic letter
from the destination state promising he won't be extradited. For
years now, Wilders has lived under looming death threats
complemented by the threat that any day, Interpol might issue a
warrant for his arrest at Jordan's behest.
Mistakenly, Wilders had thought that his own country remained
true to democratic ideals, despite cases such as that of the
cartoonist Gregorious Nekschot, who was arrested on May
13, 2008, by Dutch police for the criminal offense of "publishing
cartoons which are discriminating for Muslims and people with
dark skin."
The very notion that a judge could weigh a man's freedom of
speech against what the court construed as
"one-sided generalizations" is an absurd and dangerous
misrepresentation of the very concept of free speech. However,
that pales in comparison to the fact that a democratically
elected and sitting member of government is going to be
prosecuted for a thought crime for speaking to his constituents
about matters of national security. In Iran dissdents are
routinely arrested for holding opposing political views.
Now we are seeing the same tactics being employed in Europe, but
this time, enacted by Western governments at the behest of
Islamist groups and against their own citizens.
WIlders' "crime" is what the OIC has been working to criminalize
on a global level through the United Nations, while advocating
the punishment of Westerners who speak out against radical Islam,
terrorism, and its sources of financing. It is clear that the
OIC's successes in the United Nations -- where the General
Assembly passed its "Combating Defamation of Religions"
resolution last year -- are already resulting in direct action.
This is no victory for the Netherlands, or for anyone -- save the
OIC and Islamo-fascists. The damage being done to free speech,
however, is a defeat that will be felt everywhere. When members
of a democratic country's legislature can be arrested and tried
for expressing ideas that some find objectionable, that country's
status as a free and fair democracy is in serious doubt. But
while the Dutch will have to come to grips with their
government's abject failure to uphold basic principles of human
rights, the leaders of other nations must take notice as well.
The OIC has power and influence, and "hate speech" laws provide
an extremely malleable tool to silence critics of radical Islam
-- even if you are a member of a parliament, or indeed, perhaps,
eventually, a member of Congress. Whatever pressure may be
brought on the Netherlands to counteract the OIC's influence must
be brought to bear. For if Geert Wilders is tried and sentenced,
it will establish the precedent Islamists have been striving for
-- and one day, none of us will be free to speak out against
them.
