Via instapundit I saw this story about the decision by authorities in the Netherlands -- a longtime bastion of freedom and tolerance -- to prosecute politician Geert Wilders for expressing his opinion. No, seriously:
A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.
Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.
"In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to... draw a clear line," the court in Amsterdam said.
A couple of thoughts: people in Hollywood love to praise dissent and people who speak out against mainstream opinion -- which celebrities will speak out in defense of Wilders? Europeans love to criticize American violations of human rights, particularly the human rights of suspected terrorists, but who will criticize the Dutch for this violation of free speech, a fundamental human right?
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