http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2010/10/wilders_not_guilty_of_inciting.php

Wilders is found not guilty on all counts. Free speech triumphs against the leftard fascists.

for those who want to ; watch wilders movie " FITNA " on youtube . then you can make up your own mind . it's avialeble in english .

first and foremost ; i support free speech 100 % !! even an idiot like wilders must have his say . but whoever wrote this piece has no cleu whats going on in dutch society at this time. as stated many times : i am dutch and live in the netherlands . and this court case is about the isseu if you can just blurt out everything you want,even if it hurts or condems a whole population group in this country ! even if you agree with wilders on islam and on race issues , should not commen sense be the guideline ? should it be freedom of speech no matter what ? it just like a mariage ; if your wife is fat and she ask you ; honey do i look fat in this dress ? do you say to her... ; yes ,you big fat hippo ! go on a diet ! or do you say.. ; honey, maybe this is not the best dress for tonight . try another one .
it's not if you are allowed to say something,but if you should and is there a conciquense if you do.
we had a right wing politician about 10 years ago . his name was Jan Maat ( how dutch can you get ?) he said things like ; dutch fist. no more foreigners etc .
if this man had said the things wilders is saying now, we would have hanged him on the highest tree ! but sadly, after 9-11 and bush the whole western world is in a panic and rushing towards the right and the racist and fascists are getting more popular by the minute.
people are scared. that's bush's legacy , and i realy hoped obama would bring commen sense back . but allas , no dice.....
the new dutch governement that is forming as we speak has only a 2 seat majority in the senate (for you americans,so you understand). this has never happend in dutch history ! the country is divided to the bone and i fear the future.

This reminds me of the James D. Watson controversy when he implied that Africans were inherently less intelligent than Europeans, citing that one cannot expect humans in different places to evolve the exact same intelligence. He later retracted the comment, saying he was incorrect and no modern genetic research points in that direction. Anyway, people were talking about charging him with a hate crime for that comment. I thought that was ridiculous. If a person forms a conclusion based on available facts or their perceptions it should not be illegal to state that conclusion, even if it turns out to be incorrect. The same applies to this guy.

If the things he said are his "opinion" as the so-called prosecutors stated in the article, he has the absolute right to not onlysay them but to defend himself in that manner. If the things he said are, in fact, opinion, then the entire prosecution should be thrown into the trash unless it is the contention that only the "opinion" of the state is valid.
This joke of a "trial" is a travesty. If I were on the jury he would be not guilty with a recommendation that the government pay all court, attorney, lost wages costs and assess punitive damages for wasting the courts time on frivilous b.s.

well, in a court you kind of need to be able to back up your speech with a little thing called facts. if he wants to make a statement and present it as a fact he needs to prove that it is in fact, a fact.

He's an extremist and should be treated as such.
Anti-Muslim hate-mongers are just the same as Muslim extremists: both seek to stir up violence and oppression.
Jail the morons.

if he broke the law, then he broke the law. he should have considered it before he did whatever he did.

Although what he said wasn't "true" it shouldn't get him in trouble.

The law in Holland says "Under Dutch law, it is illegal to insult or incite hatred against a group of people on the basis of gender, religion, race or sexuality."

And he said "Our culture which is based on Christianity, Judaism and humanism, is better than the retarded Islamic culture, and this is tough to say, but it is true," he said in a televised interview. "It is a violent ideology like communism and fascism and we should deal with it that way."

What he said was dumb but I don't think he should be facing charges.

If he wins this case he will emerge from court riding the crest of a wave of victorious publicity in a trajectory that will likely propel the Freedom Party into the winning seat at the next elections. Then he will begin the de-Islamification of the Netherlands. Rotterdam will become Shangri-La, Amsterdam become Camelot.
Seeing his star rise and encouraged by his success, the people of Europe will shout the house down, forcing their political leaders to begin listening to their constituents and follow suit, advancing similar policies, radically changing the future of Europe and reversing its long slide into demographic Muslim oblivion. Europe is saved.

However, if Wilders loses, the law stipulates that he must be fined or committed to prison. At the news of his sentencing, Muslim activists will be emboldened on all fronts and their lawyer allies will unleash a storm of follow-on legal actions to silence criticism of Islam across all the nations of the European Union. From Dublin to Bucharest and Naples to Helsinki, all of Europe will be nudged, case by case, towards a cultural event horizon, the point of no return, without a voice to speak out for fear of invoking the same fate as the felon Wilders.
Robbed of their birthright liberties, unable even to protest, 830 million people and 4 million square kilometres of Western civilisation will plunge inexorably towards submission under Islam.

When this trial is done and the ripples are riding out in the aftermath, Geert Wilders will either be the leader of his country or a numbered inmate within its prison system, but make no mistake, the entire future of Europe, possibly the world, rests on the outcome of this one single case.

This is an absolutely pristine crystallization of post-modern moral and cultural relativism. Since the truth of Islam "can't really be known", then truth can't be a defense against libel or slander, and the state is unencumbered in enforcing its totalitarian aspirations.

CS Lewis practically wrote the manuscript for this in The Abolition of Man.

Once upon a time, we said, "The truth will set you free!"

Now, it just gets you thrown in jail.

There are those who say the trial of Geert Wilders is the most important event of the century. I find this attitude very disappointing. It's much more serious than that.

The trial of Geert Wilders is nothing less than a fulcrum upon which history will turn. The civilised world can only hope that his judges are aware of the magnitude of the judgement they are about to pass down.

Political correctness at it's finest... mmmchwaa! magnifique!

There is a difference between "arguing what you are saying is true," and the "truth." Unless he actually has facts, then he should be shut down. I wish Glenn Beck would travel to Amsterdam... Oh yeah!

Title of post:
Dutch anti-Islam politician can't defend himself by arguing his comments are true

Thats because courts of law only alow the Facts....you know those pesky little things that bigots have always strugled with.

What has he said that was declared "hate speech" and got him in trouble? I might add that I do not agree with "hate speech" rules, I just want to get a better handle on what got him in trouble.

I just read his 9/11 Freedom Ralley speech and the guy is full of shit, a liar and a crude propagandist who appeals to a certain American demographic that believes that Islam is the root of all the problems in the US.

The same American demographic that ignore that it's not the Muslims who run the banks, run the the media outlets and control US politicians through political action committees and relentless pressure groups.

It looks like as if Holland is going to finish driving the nails into the free speech coffin . . . I wonder how long it'll be before they come to realize that they've become a totally oppressed and enslaved Islamic controlled society?

He should be allowed to defend his statements. Can these people not READ the Quran?

If this were me I'd make it into a show bigtime! Demand Muslims testify on their plans etc,play to the press,have big demos in front of the courthouse,anything I could to make the liberal Dutch look stupid{which they are} I might go down but I'd go down as hard as I could! it is only a Matter of time before it happens here people! Squash Islam for the evil it is! Wake up people before it is too late! The cockroaches are trying to take over the planet! GOT BUGSPRAY?

the far left in the USA must be salivating over the idea of being able to jail people for stating their opinions....when they run counter to leftist ideology, of course.

pussy