laissez fairy

Those three or four decades of freedom were fun, but Europe seems determined to get back to its authoritarian roots.   This from the Low Countries last week:

“A member of parliament in the Netherlands who has been charged with ‘insulting’ Muslims says he fears he will be found guilty and sent to prison in only a few months.”

Oh dear.

If the Dutch are going to criminalize inadvertent “insults,” they should at least consider some sort of exception for insulting Muslims.  Because let’s face it, these folks are rather easily offended.  And even if they’re not actually offended, they will feign offense to see just how much they can get away with.  Back to the MP:

“Wilders, who produced a controversial [TO WHOM???] film that was highly critical of the Koran last year, says he faces a maximum of two years in prison if convicted. He said he had expected to be charged, and he has retained legal assistance from a U.S.-based nonprofit to help him defend himself.

Prosecutors initially declined last year to charge the right wing politician after he issued his short film, ‘Fitna,’ which juxtaposes Koranic verses over footage of violence committed by Islamic terrorists.

But, the Netherlands allows private citizens to petition the courts to compel prosecution. In Wilders’ case, eight parties, including a politician from an opposing party, asked the courts to force prosecutors to bring criminal charges.”

I say Mr. Wilders needs to pack it up and leave immediately. Follow in the footsteps of Euro refugees Oriana Fallaci and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, take up residence in the U.S., and then he can say whatever he pleases about the Muslim takeover of his home country.

Whether he’s thrown in prison or not, if he stays in Holland, Mr. Wilders is going to be the next Theo van Gogh, the Dutchman who in 2004 was decapitated on a public street after releasing a film about the oppression of women in Muslim culture.  And if militant Muslims don’t get him,  the Dutch media establishment will continue to demonize him as a racist fascist until some deranged do-gooder liberal guns him down - as happened a few years back to the utterly fabulous Dutch gaycon Pim Fortuyn.

Also, it’s worth noting that the Muslims and the Dutch establishment are very likely trying to make an example out of Mr. Wilders.  This is a high-profile prosecution meant to scare average Dutchmen into silence.  After all, if a powerful politician like Mr. Wilders is forced to rely on a foreign human rights organization for his legal defense, what chance would your average joe on the street have?

A decade or so ago, the Netherlands was one of the most open and tolerant jurisdictions on the planet (esp for gays).  Today, that open, tolerant, pot-smoking Netherlands persists only in the imagination of American liberals, who fancy themselves hip and worldly because back in college they spent a night or two in a Amsterdam hostel on their way to Paris.  In reality, the Netherlands is rapidly disappearing under the rising tide of Islam, and any Dutchman who stands up for traditional Dutch values is either imprisoned or killed.