by Giulio Meotti
How we got there.
The European Court of Human Rights sentenced a woman in Austria because her statements represent “an attack on the Prophet of Islam which could arouse prejudice and threaten religious peace”. In a seminar in 2011, Sabaditsch Wolff , basing her words on Islamic texts, called Mohammed a paedophile because of his marriage to Aisha. An Austrian court convicted her of “denigrating” Islam.
Then the European Court established that EU states can limit the right to freedom of expression if what is expressed “is likely to incite religious intolerance” and “risks disturbing the religious peace in their country”.
Fast forward to 2023.
“Politicians congratulate al-Qaeda, Iran and Erdogan,” headlined the Danish newspaper Politiken, after Denmark announced the long-awaited law to protect the Koran. What does it mean? Two years in prison for those who burn or profane the Koran.
It’s not bad to be in Europe, and not in Pakistan, where a similar law has just been introduced in Parliament (they are just more ambitious, 10 years instead of 2).
Inger Støjberg, who was immigration minister between 2015 and 2019 and now leads the opposition Danish Democrats party, said “1-0 for Muslims” and that “the unfree forces in the Middle East have got a win today. Now they see that they can dictate our lifestyle, because we have a government that bows to threats and pressure.”
In Sweden, too, everything is ready for a sharia-style law about the Koran.
The city of Malmö (Sweden’s third largest) has just launched the “50 new flags” project to strengthen the city’s “multicultural identity”. There are flying the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey and other Muslim countries. Many, many crescents.
And now full speed ahead into the future. The future is now. Indeed, it reminds us of the totalitarian past we would like to forget.
“On a sunny morning, six plainclothes police officers broke into a small flat in Amsterdam. Their prey: a skinny Dutch cartoonist with a rough sense of humor. Informed that he was suspected of having carried out offensive designs on Muslims, the Dutchman surrendered without offering any resistance”.
Science fiction?
No, news from the Wall Street Journal. This is Gregorius Nekschot and he spent the night in a cell. Police confiscated his computer, a hard drive and sketchpads. He was summoned by prosecutors. Investigated for violating a Dutch law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion or sexual orientation. “It’s serious, it’s about free speech,” said Mark Rutte, then leader of the opposition.
Anyone who does not understand what what is happening must think of the series of trials in Europe already held against those who have criticized Islam.
-Michel Houellebecq because in his novel Platform he called Islam “the stupidest religion”.
-Oriana Fallaci – “the woman who defames Islam” – for The Rage and the Pride..
-Then Christoph Biró, editor-in-chief of the best-selling Austrian newspaper, the Kronen Zeitung, guilty of having written about “young Syrian men with a high rate of testosterone, who committed sexual assaults”.
-Lars Hedegaard, the director of the Danish Free Press Society, for his criticism of Islam.
-Geert Wilders for offending Islam.
-The great Holocaust historian George Bensoussan, three years on trial for speaking of Islamic anti-Semitism.
No one is prosecuted for saying that the Dalai Lama is the representative of a barbaric faith. Nor for saying that Patriarch Kirill is a corrupt and violent former KGB agent. Nor for saying that “Jesus is queer”, indeed the French Council of State has established that it is your right to say so.
Only one religion in Europe today enjoys laws, courts, officials and correctional apparatuses. And it achieved this through violence, threats, terror, fear, intimidation, blackmail and boycotts.
Islam in Europe is in a win win situation.