Hat tip to Brussels Journal
This past week, Geert Wilders spoke in Nashville. Here is the text of his speech. Before you immediately pass it off as racist, read it carefully and think about his words. Who are the real haters, the real threats to freedom in Europe and America?
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4743
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3 comments:
"Champion of free speech" Geert Wilders wants to have political cartoon censored.
Actually, in America you can tell LIES without being arrested. I love our First Amendment too, but it has little to do with weighing the truth or falsehood of speech. It is based on the understanding that if the government has power to decree what is truth and what is falsehood, then it can decree convenient lies to be truth, and inconvenient truths to be lies.
I would rate this statement a lie: "islam is a dangerous totalitarian ideology rather than a religion." I am glad that in America, Wilders cannot be arrested for telling this lie. I'm sure he sincerely believes it. I am confident that clearly stated truth can overcome this lie.
The REASON we have the First Amendment is that we fought a revolution against European rule, and made a clean break with monarchy. Europe stumbled into some semblance of democracy by a different path. Holland, England, and many other European "democracies" aren't even republics. There is still a sense that "human rights" are the gift of a benevolent sovereign, rather than rights the government shall not meddle with.
If Wilders made a sufficiently specific statement about a specific individual Muslim, he could still be sued for libel or slander, which is a civil matter, not a criminal case. Proof would be required of knowing falsehood, and malicious intent, and/or invasion of privacy in the case of someone who is not a public figure.
Muhammed is fair game, because he is dead, and is a public figure, even if its considered rude to depict him.
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