Freedom of speech is being curtailed all over Europe in the name of not offending or angering the Islamic population. SLL posted Geert Wilders’ final statement at his trial. They tend to be rather touchy. From Guilio Meotti at gatestoneinstitute.org:
• On December 9, for the first time in Dutch history, a court criminalized freedom of expression: The truly heroic Dutch Member of Parliament, Geert Wilders, was found guilty of the “crime” of “hate speech.”
• The death sentence against Salman Rushdie in 1989 by Iran’s supreme leader looked unreal. The West did not take it seriously. Since then, however, this fatwa has been assimilated to such an extent that today’s threats to free speech come from ourselves. It is now the West that put on trial writers and journalists.
• The Red Brigades, the Communist terror group which devastated Italy in the 1970s, coined a slogan: “Strike one to educate one hundred.” If you target one, you get collective intimidation. This is exactly the effect of these political trials about Islam.
• “Hate speech” has become a political weapon to dispatch whoever may not agree with you. It is not the right of a democracy to quibble about the content of articles or cartoons. In the West, we paid a high price for the freedom to write them and and read them it. It is not up to those who govern to grant the right of thought and speech.
• In Europe now, the same iron curtain as in the Soviet era is descending.
To continue reading: Critics of Islam on Trial in Europe: Wilders Convicted
It’s cowardice, plain and simple. Someone once commented, if Islamic Doctrine is so violent, why would we want to radicalize them by showing them the truth? I think they know, deep down inside, that Islam isn’t a peaceful religion, and that’s what terrifies them to the point where they’re perfectly content to bury their heads in the sand.