In Holland, the parliamentarian Geert Wilders is on trial for speaking his mind about the acute existential threat posed to European culture by Islam. Mr. Wilders — who believes, correctly, that Islam is at its core an explicitly totalizing and expansionist ideological system that is utterly incompatible with fundamental Western principles, and therefore should not be welcome in Western societies — is charged with crimes of offensive speech, not only for his public utterances, but also for his brief movie Fitna, which juxtaposes images of disturbing manifestations of Islam with quotes from the Koran.
It is hard to believe that the once-proud Dutch people, now cowering before their ascendant Muslim masters, have fallen so far as to be willing to prosecute one of their own members in what amounts to a sharia blasphemy trial by proxy. But there it is: there in the dock stands the brave Mr. Wilders, under indictment, in his native land, for speaking out in its defense. It is sickening.
Despite the enormous importance of this case, which threatens the single freedom that guarantees all others, the trial has received scant coverage here in the States, and shamefully, next to no editorial comment. The court has just postponed further proceedings until July at the earliest; there was nary a peep about any of it in any of the major news sources.
Others are watching, though. The National Review has just published a little symposium, to go with the International Free Press Society festschrift we mentioned in an earlier post . And if you like stronger stuff, well, here’s Pat Condell.