Free Speech Near Death in Holland

This one slipped by me when it happened three days ago, but it's still plenty jawdropping today, so what the hell. A Dutch public prosecutor is seeking a two-week suspended prison sentence and 40 hours of community service for a man charged with discrimination. The suspect's crime: displaying, in the immediate wake of the murder of Theo van Gogh, a pamphlet in his home's window that read "Stop the tumor that is Islam." (link to news article in Dutch)

Were a Dutch person to display a pamphlet reading "Stop the cancer that is Christianity" or "Stop the baby-killing atheists," it's highly unlikely that said prosecutor — or anyone, for that matter — would bat an eyelash. Good thing, too. But from the looks of it, Muslims receive special protections not granted to others, equality and free speech be damned.

Of course, this judicial creepiness comes from the same country where the authorities ordered a spontaneous post-van-Gogh-murder mural removed because it consisted mainly of the words "Thou Shalt Not Kill." That text, and the timing of its appearance, was deemed to be incendiary and unlawful.

Comments

[John Palubiski]

I'm beginning to think that cultures don't die out, they just commit suicide