Holland puts free speech on trial

by Salim Mansur
Toronto Sun
January 23, 2010

http://www.legal-project.org/article/618

Excerpt:

The trial of Geert Wilders, leader of Holland's Freedom Party and a Dutch MP, on charges of hate speech opened in Amsterdam last Wednesday.

Wilders is indicted for equating the Qur'an with Hitler's Mein Kampf, for likening Islam with Nazism and for producing a documentary film, Fitna, that is provocative and insulting to Muslims.

In calling for the prosecution of Wilders, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal declared: "By attacking the symbols of the Muslim religion, he also insulted Muslim believers. In a democratic system, hate speech is considered to be so serious that it is in the general interest to draw a clear line."

The context of this trial is the gathering storm over Europe since 9/11. This is a result of the increasing weight of Muslim presence in the continent that brings with it the demand for accommodation of Islamic culture — including Shariah, which is totally incompatible with modern Europe's liberal and secular values — and the fear among an increasing number of Europeans that such accommodation is already adversely affecting their own culture.

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