Deeper under the Eurofascist Jackboot

In a post yesterday EURSOC reported on an inside-out, upside-down case of moral inversion in the UK. A couple of years ago a Channel Four documentary crew smuggled cameras into a number of English mosques and recorded footage of extremist preachers at work. The footage was broadcast under the title 'Undercover Mosque.'

"The documentary caught the attention of the Crown Prosecution Service and the West Midlands Police. Frenzied clerics preaching fundamentalist hatred in the heart of Britain? Surely these are the sort of people anti-hate speech laws ought to be protecting us against. Perhaps the culprits could be deported, as their counterparts are in France? Unfortunately not. The CPS and Police investigated the film makers, accusing them of selective editing, distortion and "undermining community relations."

The police took what newspapers describe as the "highly unusual step" of referring the programme-makers to OFCOM, the media watchdog; OFCOM rejected their complaint.
The production team and Channel Four then brought legal action against the police and CPS."

They won the case, and yesterday both the West Midlands Police and CPS were making public apologies in the High Court. Read all about it here.

In The Netherlands meanwhile cartoonist Gregory Nekschot is not so lucky. He's been arrested and might well be prosecuted and convicted under the new Euro legislation covering 'hate crimes.' Here's the case as reported by De Telegraaf newspaper:

"Cartoonist Gregory Netschot is fearing for his life after he was arrested by police at his house last Saturday. "Got you", he was told by arresting officers. The cartoonist was working at his home when a ten men squad entered the premises.

"Immediately on arrival they began photographing and searching", Nekschot told a local newspaper. At the police station he was interrogated twice and thrown in jail overnight.

"When I returned home I found my computer, CDs, memory stick and cell phone had been confiscated. All the stuff I need to work," says Gregory. He says Islam is a regular subject. Last year a book on his controversial work was published. There wasn't much response, but my work goes further than the Danish cartoons.

"That's what the officers told me: "What you do is much worse than what they did in Denmark. Do you realize what it means if your identity became known?" "I replied that in that case he was loading a heavy responsibility on himself."

The cartoonist doesn't feel safe anymore. "What I do is not trivial, I know what the consequences might be. That is why I fear a conviction. In jail my life is at risk," he told the newspaper."

Only just now parliament are crying foul over the legal muzzling! While criminals and hoodlums are terrorising entire city boroughs with impunity, this 'hate crime' investigation would appear to have been in the works for the last three years.

As present blogger is facing a return from glorious exile in Greece back to the native Netherlands, we might well be next. In fact, all who refuse submission might sooner or later expect an overnight visit from the Eustapo.

Here's a link to Nekschot's blog (in Dutch) (caution: not for sensitive souls).

And here's an interview he had with Danish television back in February (in Danish and English). Most cartoonists are practising self-censorship these days. We are getting deeper and deeper under the Eurofascist jackboot every day!



Update:

The problem is Postmodern relativism, which falsely equivalences all with everything. It is summed up in a comment by 'a voice of reason' on Elsevier: "If there are no limits to the freedom of expression soon even Hezbollah propaganda will have to be allowed." Why, oh why would the Netherlands ever have to allow Hezbollah propaganda? It calls for the destruction of Israel. Is Nekschot propagating the destruction of Jews, Muslims or any other group? Isn't Hezbollah a terrorist organization based in the Middle East? And wasn't the subject the freedom of expression in the Netherlands? As long as this is the line of 'thinking people' the defence of the realm is doomed to failure. I'd like to talk to Mr Lucas, should this post ever reach him by a twist of fate.

- Filed on Articles in "In Defence of Liberty: muzzle 'em" -