I want to bring to your attention a symposium on National Review Online of knowledgeable conservatives giving their comments on the trial of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands for “inciting hatred and discrimination toward Islam.” It’s called Western Civilization on Trial and participants include experts on radical Islam like Robert Spencer, Daniel Pipes, and Bat Ye’or, as well as others. They’re all worth reading — and all are brief and to the point. Here’s some of Robert Spencer’s contribution:
The Geert Wilders trial ought to be an international media event; seldom has any court case anywhere had such enormous implications for the future of the free world. The case against him, which has all the legitimacy of a Stalinist-era Moscow show trial, is a manifestation of the global assault on free speech sponsored chiefly at the U.N. by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). If Wilders loses, the freedom of speech will be threatened everywhere in the West.
Even if he wins, a dangerous precedent has been set by the fact of the trial itself: It is a sad day for the freedom of speech when a man can be put on trial for causing another man offense. If offending someone were really a crime warranting prosecution by the civil authorities, the legal system would be opened up to absurdities even greater than the Wilders trial.
All of our posts on Geert Wilders are here.