Geert Wilders to be charged for anti-Islamic statements

A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.

Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

“In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to… draw a clear line,” the court in Amsterdam said.

Mr Wilders said the judgement was an “attack on the freedom of expression”.

“Participation in the public debate has become a dangerous activity. If you give your opinion, you risk being prosecuted,” he said.

This is the film in question:

As you can see from the film, Wilders quoted directly from the Koran and from radicals.

Gates of Vienna and Atlas Shrugs have more.

UPDATE
Robert Spencer:

For hate speech — after declining to do so last year, which means that Islamic supremacist groups in the Netherlands have kept up the pressure on lawmakers until they got the outcome they wanted. Hate speech, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, and hate speech laws are tools in the hands of the powerful that they can use to silence the powerless and crush dissent.

And make no mistake: even though the Muslims in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the West present themselves as embattled victims of racism and “Islamophobia,” that is exactly what is going on here: this is just one part of the 57-government Organization of the Islamic Conference’s efforts to silence speech that they deem critical of Islam — including “defamation of Islam” that goes under the “pretext” of “freedom of expression, counter terrorism or national security.”

If they succeed in doing this, we will be rendered mute, and thus defenseless, in the face of the advancing jihad and attempt to impose Sharia on the West — in fact, one of the key elements of the laws for dhimmis is that they are never critical of Islam, Muhammad, or the Qur’an, so this initiative not only aids the advance of Sharia in the West, but is itself an element of that advance.

Also posting on it:
Gateway Pundit
Right Views
Samizdata
Spanish Pundit
Irish Spy
Islam in action
Sweetness and Light
Hot Air
Jawa Report
Harry’s Place
Israpundit
Tel-Chai Nation
Pursuing Holiness
Laigle’s Forum
Aristotle the Geek
A fistful of Euros
Prairie Pundit
Q and O
Diana West
Memeorandum
Michelle Malkin
Bivouac-ID
Matthew Yglesias
Little Green Footballs
Pirate’s Cove
Stop the ACLU
EU Referendum
The Corner
Bill Warner
Belmont Club

Statement from Wilders’s Freedom Party

Court decision an all-out assault on freedom of speech
woensdag 21 januari 2009

The Freedom Party (PVV) is shocked by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal’s decision to prosecute Geert Wilders for his statements and opinions. Geert Wilders considers this ruling an all-out assault on freedom of speech.

Geert Wilders: “Apparently this is The Netherlands today. If you speak out you might be prosecuted. To participate in public debate has become a dangerous activity.”

“If I have to appear in court, not only I will be prosecuted, but also hundreds of thousands of Dutch citizens who reject the Islamisation of the West. In Dutch Parliament only the Party for Freedom is willing to speak up for the preservation of our culture and our many freedoms.”

The Freedom Party leader now faces legal proceedings that will probably take years to conclude and will also involve enormous legal fees.

“We depend on small donations. The Freedom Party is the only party in Parliament that does not accept any government funding. This court decision jeopardizes the very existence of the Freedom Party. We simply cannot afford the enormous legal expenses.”

“This is a black day for freedom.”

They also have a petition

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