Matters are, quite clearly, improving in the Netherlands. Five years ago Theo van Gogh made a film about Islam that some found ‘offensive.’ He was murdered. Last year, Dutch politician Geert Wilders (who I interviewed a few years back for NR) made another film about Islam that some found ‘offensive.’ Wilders still lives, I’m delighted to say, but I’m sad to report that the story doesn’t end there: the Dutch authorities are now prosecuting him for, according to this CNN report, “insulting groups of people” and “inciting hatred against people of a certain faith.”
Now, Wilders’ verbal onslaughts on Islam are, on occasion, overwrought, poorly thought through, and needlessly insulting (I’ll have to see his film before coming to any judgment on how it stands up), but it’s difficult to avoid the preliminary conclusion that the onslaught by the Dutch authorities on free speech is something far, far worse.
Theo van Gogh’s murderer will be pleased, however. It seems he has made his point.
Wat een schande.