Amsterdam judge Marcel van Oosten accepted the Freedom Party leader’s statements were directed at Islam and not at Muslim believers. They were, the judge ruled, “acceptable within the context of public debate”…….. Members of minority groups who initiated the case had told the trial that Mr Wilders’ comments had led to a rise in discrimination and violence against Muslims.Plaintiffs had been seeking a symbolic one-euro fine. Before the court verdict, they had said they would consider taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights..Geert Wilders cleared of hate charges by Dutch court. – GoV: Geert Wilders Walks.
Der er ikke ubetinget tilfredshed. Politiken Wilders er lettet over blåstempling af »grove« udtalelser, Socialdemokratiske Avisen.dk: Geert Wilders må kalde islam fascistisk. CNN – “En opportunist, det er hvad han er.” og på svensk stort set denne model: Högerpopulisten Geert Wilders frikänd. Vi er alle populister for Vorherre og for den lyserøde anstændighed, vi ved det og vi forstår, at de ikke synes om, at Wilders gik fri.
Nu kan man så trække vejret frit indtil næste gang restvæsnet lader sig anvende som våben i den politiske kamp. 29 måneder måtte Wilders sætte af til det, plus de mange penge. Det er en glædelig dag for ytringsfriheden i Europa, men den er unægtelig opblandet med nogen forstemthed over at dette cirkus er muligt, for det kommer til at ske igen og igen. Mennesker der ikke kan klare sig i en fri og åben debat, skal ikke have denne legale mulighed for at snyde sig til fordele. At f.eks. Koranen er en langt mere hadefuld og voldsdyrkende bog, end Mein Kampf, er simpelthen er matematisk faktum, det er optalt og sammenlignet. Det er ikke noget der skal afhandles ved en domstol. Og så er den langt lettere læselig, fordi Muhammed ikke ville spille store Hegelsk filosof rent sprogligt, hvad malersvensvenden Hitler ville. Hans bog er ulæselig, jeg har læst den da den kom på dansk i 1972, dengang mit liv var langt nok til dårlige bøger. Koranen bør læses af alle, der vil forstå det århundrede de lever i. Der er endnu tid til en præventiv læsning. “Mein Kampf” er post festum-læsning siden 1939. – Nu vi er ved de dele, så har The Atlantic en fantastisk fotoserie idag: World War II: Before the War.
Mark Steyn: Selve retssagen er straffen
“On the edge of legal acceptability,” eh? As for the latter part — “the broad context of a political and social debate” — the genius “jurists” are effectively conceding what I said when this racket got going — that the Dutch state was attempting to criminalize the political platform of a popular opposition party. That’s the sort of thing free societies should leave to Mubarak & Co, and even then, you can only get away with it for a while before people draw the obvious conclusion.
Nevertheless, as in all these cases, the process is the punishment. The intent is to make it more and more difficult for apostates of the multiculti state to broaden the terms of political discourse. Very few Europeans would have had the stomach to go through what Wilders did — and the British Government’s refusal to permit a Dutch Member of Parliament to land at Heathrow testifies to how easily the craven squishes of the broader political culture fall into line.
And at the end the awkward fact remains: Geert Wilders lives under 24-hour armed guard because of explicit death threats made against him by the killer of Theo van Gogh and by other Muslims. Yet he’s the one who gets puts on trial. That’s the Netherlands, 2011. Shameful. As for the Islamic imperialists, they’re taking their case to the logical venue.[the United Nations Human Rights Committee.] Geert Wilders Acquitted
Professor Hans Jansen: “De vil prøve igen”
”Jeg er glad for, at dette mareridt nu er overstået. Dommen er et punktum for en retssag, der var fuldstændig unødvendig, og som ville få uoverskuelige følger, hvis systemet var konsekvent: Hvis det, Geert Wilders har sagt om islam, er tilstrækkeligt til at indlede en retssag mod ham, så må konsekvensen være, at alle universiteter må nedlægge deres islamforskning. Derfor var det fra starten en fejl at anlægge sag mod ham.” Kæmpenederlag for ytringsfrihedens fjender – men de vil nok prøve igen, frygter et af Geert Wilders’ hovedvidner.
Ezra Levant interviewer Wilders om frikendelsen
Nationernes genfødsel
En passende dag at læse Roger Scrutons seneste essay:
All across Europe the nations are beginning to boil with frustration, at a political straitjacket that prevents them from asserting their ancient rights. The causes of this are many, but two in particular stand out: immigration and the European Union. The two are connected, since it is the EU’s non-negotiable insistence on the free movement of labor that has prevented the nation-states from exerting meaningful control over their borders. At a time when unemployment in Britain stands at more than 2 million, more than a million immigrants from Eastern Europe have come to take what jobs there are. It is impossible that such a situation should endure without strong sentiments of national entitlement among the indigenous people, and our governing elites are struggling hard to prevent those sentiments from emerging into the light of day.The Rebirth of Nations.
In Defense of ‘Hurtful’ Speech
By GEERT WILDERS (Wall Street Journal, log in.)
Though I am obviously relieved by yesterday’s decision, my thoughts go to people such as Danish journalist Lars Hedegaard, Austrian human-rights activist Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff and others who have recently been convicted for criticizing Islam. They have not been as fortunate.
Yesterday was a beautiful day for freedom of speech in the Netherlands. An Amsterdam court acquitted me of all charges of hate speech after a legal ordeal that lasted almost two years. The Dutch people learned that political debate has not been stifled in their country, and they learned they are still allowed to speak critically about Islam and that resistance against Islamization is not a crime.
I was brought to trial despite being an elected politician and the leader of the third-largest party in the Dutch parliament. I was not prosecuted for anything I did, but for what I had said. My view on Islam is that it is not so much a religion as a totalitarian political ideology with religious elements. While there are many moderate Muslims, Islam’s political ideology is radical and has global ambitions. I expressed these views in newspaper interviews, op-ed articles and in my 2008 documentary, “Fitna.”