Prosecutor Seeks (Geert) Wilders Acquittal on Muslim Comments

[alp227]

Source: Bloomberg News

(Updates with prosecutor comment in third paragraph.)

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Dutch Freedom Party Leader Geert Wilders should be acquitted of charges that he incited hatred and defamed Muslims in newspaper editorials and his 2008 film “Fitna,” a prosecutor said.

Wilders, 47, is on trial for calling the Koran “fascist” and comparing it to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf in a 2007 Dutch newspaper editorial. A year later, he released his movie “Fitna,” in which he calls on Muslims to rip out “hate- preaching” verses from the book.

“A politician in public debate should have the room to make proposals” even if they may discriminate, Prosecutor Paul Velleman told the Amsterdam District Court today. While some of Wilders statements contain “a certain degree of crudity,” this doesn’t lead to “unnecessary excessiveness.”

The trial coincides with the start of a new minority government led by the Liberal Party and Christian Democratic Alliance, which relies on Wilder’s Freedom Party to pass legislation.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-15/prosecutor-seeks-wilders-acquittal-on-muslim-comments.html

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Wilders's comments are in bad taste, but generally I think that free speech democracies should protect speech that some would consider to be of low intellect. It's one thing to compare the Quran to Mein Kampf. It's another to say: "Shoot the nearest Arab-looking guy you see."

[McCamy Taylor]

1. Context counts. Netherlands have laws outlawing inflammatory "hate" speech.

If any in the country suggested that Judaism or Christianity condone or have been responsible for violence, they could and would be prosecuted. Nazis do not have free speech in most of Europe. So, why should anyone get a free ride just because he is bad mouthing Muslims? How is this guy different from a Nazi villifying Jewish people?

[totodeinhere]

4. In fact, Christianity and Judaism as well as Islam have all been responsible for violence.

It's a fact, so why should it be a crime to say so? All three of those religions are based upon fairy tales and cater to fear and prejudice.

[McCamy Taylor]

2. When fascism comes to Europe (again) it will be burning a Koran.

[Eryemil]

3. Good. Hate speech laws are bullshit. n|t