Wilders calls for repeal of all hate-speech laws in Europe

Hannon writes:

I was surprised that in Geert Wilders’s interview with Glenn Beck, he said he wants to ban hate speech laws in Europe, in a sort of solidarity with U.S. free speech laws. Did you not criticize him only recently for suggesting using the hate speech laws to ban the Koran? I think you said he must do exactly what he is doing now—advocating for abolition of the hate speech laws. Where did he make his switch?

LA replies:

Here is Wilders’s position on the Koran as now clarified. He says that the only sort of speech that should be banned is that which advocates and approves of violence. Thus the Koran should still be banned, because it advocates violence.

This does not contradict his new position that hate speech laws, i.e., laws criminalizing speech that “incites acts of discrimination,” should be withdrawn.

I heard about Wilder’s call for the withdrawal of the hate speech laws last Saturday, February 21, when a colleague sent me Andrew Bostom’s blog article about it. Below is the e-mail I sent in reply the same day. This was such big news, I don’t know why I didn’t think of posting something about it at VFR at the time.

I wrote:

I’m overjoyed to see that the idea of making the repeal of the hate speech laws of Europe a top priority item for the anti-jihad movement, a step I urged at my meeting with you and ____ last spring, and then again in my open letter to the leadership of the International Free Press Society last month, has been adopted, first, by IFPS, and now by Wilders himself:

I propose the withdrawal of all hate speech legislation in Europe. I propose a European First Amendment. Freedom of speech is the keystone of our Western civilization, it is the keystone of our democracies and the keystone of our freedom. That is why freedom of speech should be extended instead of restricted.

This is a spectacular statement, which alters in a single stroke the entire political dynamic. As I said last year, I was not aware of any leaders or writers in Europe who had gone beyond endless complaining and moaning about hate-speech prosecutions and instead had called for the repeal of the hate-speech laws that make those prosecutions possible. Now Wilders has done that, and not only done it, but done so in ringing terms and added the brilliant finesse of calling for a European First Amendment! Fantastic.

And what are the European powers-that-be going to say in response to Wilders? “No, we’re against basic freedom of speech”? “No, we can’t allow freedom of speech, because the people of Europe are so evil and hateful”? The powers-that-be in Europe have never had to defend the hate speech laws because no one has ever challenged them. The European conservatives have been so beaten down and demoralized it didn’t occur to them that they could challenge them. Now, as a result of Wilders’s statement, they will realize that they can.

As long as the hate-speech laws were being tacitly accepted, our side was passive, afraid, unsure of themselves, having to watch everything they said about Islam. Now that the call to repeal all hate-speech laws has been placed at the forefront of the political debate, the initiative and the moral confidence will pass to our side, while the EU leaders will be on the defensive, defending an indefensible position.

Up to this point the main factor preventing any real political opposition to Islamization has been those laws. Get those laws overturned, and the voices of anti-Islamization will swell like a mighty chorus across Europe. Even short of getting them overturned, making them an issue and attacking them can be enough to switch the moral confidence to our side.

[end of my February 21 e-mail.]

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 24, 2009 02:14 PM | Send