What Was Behind the Trial of Geert Wilders?

Dec 13, 2016 by

by George Igler, Gatestone Institute:

[…] Although the gross unfairness of Geert Wilders’s prosecution is clear when compared with other Dutch politicians who have articulated far worse, there is also compelling evidence that much that is preached from the Koran in mosques daily would clearly fall under such a definition of “hate speech” — also remaining curiously outside the attention of public prosecutors.

Given that “hate speech” damages the maintenance of dignity between groups and public safety, can a compelling case therefore not be made that “hate speech” laws mandated by the European Union are doing considerably more harm than good?

Is it not high time that lawmakers grasp how mass Muslim immigration, and the importation of the sectarianism unfortunately inherent in Islamic doctrine, undermine even more significantly these noble principles of “public good”?

How exactly are the terrorism, rape and crime waves that have accompanied such migration into Europe, likely to be addressed by the democratic process — within the confines of such originally benign legislation — when across the continent fundamental notions of security are already being so comprehensively undermined?

How are ordinary, decent, native Europeans ever likely socially and politically to articulate how they never consented to being part of a “grand experiment,” without incurring the stain of bigotry accompanying this reasonable assertion, from friends and co-workers alike?

Are loyal citizens being cowed into silence, as in the world’s most totalitarian nations, by prosecutions that can justifiably be seen as “making an example” of those who fail to toe whatever is the current political line?

More sinisterly, with three months until the polls open in the Netherlands, the verdict against Wilders may have had little to do with either incitement or “hate speech,” and everything to do with a desire to curtail precisely the sort of public rallies which were hallmarks of both victories led by Nigel Farage in Great Britain and Donald Trump in the United States.

It is precisely these kind of public gatherings that do so much to convince those with entirely legitimate grievances that they are not alone.

Would it not be a remarkable irony if, rather than burying Wilders as the trial seemed intended to do, it instead propels him to victory?

Read here

Read also: Dutch populist leader Wilders rises in polls after conviction, Yahoo News

 

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