Intimidation as a Tool of Censorship

A chill has descended on Western civilization with another example of how little by little our freedoms are being eroded. The latest example comes from Holland where Geert Wilders, member of parliament and leader of the Freedom Party, has been indicted and will be criminally prosecuted for statements he made and that the Court of Appeals in Amsterdam has deemed as "insulting," and declaring that they "substantially harm the religious esteem" of Muslims.” It is clear that this is another step in the direction of curtailing debate about Islam, and it represents a major victory for Islamic lobbies in the West who are pushing for such legislation in Europe and America.

For those of you not familiar with Wilders, he produced the film Fitna which is critical of Islam, and has been a staunch supporter of Israel and a crusader against the Islamization of the West. This link to The International Free Press Society has some interesting articles on the subject.

Many in the United States would argue that such thing could never happen here. Well, let’s go to this White House website and see what the new administration has in mind for us in terms of civil rights. Among the many civil rights goals of the new administration is the following:

"Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: President Obama and Vice President Biden will
strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by
passing the Matthew Shepard Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department
of Justice's Criminal Section."

This legislation that expands hate crime will result in the eventual prosecution of people who express ideas that are controversial. Organizations such as CAIR have legal teams ready to jump and sue every journalist, blogger, talk show host, politician or pundit that utters anything they deem as anti-Muslim and "hatefull". The effect of these type of lawsuits is not necessarily to win, but rather to intimidate. Those sued don't have Saudi Arabian financing to survive long trials and pay for expensive lawyers. Expansion of hate crime legislation is one step in offering disgruntled groups the ability to intimidate what should be protected by free speech.

It is ironic that this legislation is proposed and supported by the gay community and many Muslim groups. Strange bedfellows, since we all know how tolerant is Islam when it comes to gays. The rest of the legislation proposed is the typical naive approach intended to protect the helpless workers, criminals and drug addicts. If you have not gone to the above link, now it's a good time to do so. This legislation has always unintended consequences not envisioned by its authors.

Well...the road to hell is paved with good intention. Nothing like a bleeding heart executive and legislature to help pave this road.