[Trinidad]

peachy, on Feb 9 2009, 03:48 PM, said:

Trinidad, on Jan 24 2009, 02:04 PM, said:

Some extra information to put things in perspective.

1) Inciting hatred against a minority group is a violation of Dutch Law. This is a direct consequence of what happened when in 1933 our neighbors democratically elected a government.

Don't wish to be a devil's advocate here, but the wording must have suffered in translation from Dutch, or maybe the text is not complete and only relevant part was quoted. Implication I get is, that inciting hatred against a majority group is not a violation of Dutch Law.

That is pretty much correct.

The reason for this is that the majority can protect itself against a minority by way of the democratic process. (They can simply outvote the minority.) The minority can't do that.

This is part of the checks and balances in most modern Western European democracies.

Rik

[Trinidad]

In a separate development, Geert Wilders was invited by the Brittish House of Lords to show his movie Fitna and participate in a discussion. In response, the British government decided that Geert Wilders is not permitted to enter the country.

The Dutch government and parlement have protested this decision. They claim that a member of parlement should be allowed to do his job, which includes explaining his point of view in other parlements.

Obviously, Geert Wilders is taking the plane to Heathrow anyway today (BD 104, to be precise ). So it is expected that Geert Wilders will be an illegal alien by this afternoon. Can politics get more ironic than this?

Rik

[Trinidad]

And yes...

As expected, Geert Wilders is held in a Brittish cell. And as expected, he is furious about it, in his own typical way in a phone call to the Dutch press agency ANP. If he isn't careful, he may be convicted for hate crimes in two countries, one of which he wasn't even allowed to enter.

Edited on Feb 12 2009, 12:55 PM:

Geert Wilders has been put on a plane back to The Netherlands, about an hour ago.

Rik