GATESTONE INSTITUTE: Under the guise of letting go of the Christian holidays, this text provides Muslims with a waiver to add Islamic holidays…. Six Belgian senators introduced a draft resolution in the Belgian Parliament that would make "Islamophobia" a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment. A person would be guilty if he "considers Islam to be violent, threatening or supportive of terrorism…" or "considers Islam to be a political ideology, used for political and military purposes to establish it hegemony." If passed, the law would pose a devastating blow to the exercise of free speech in Belgium.
EXTRACT: In February, six Belgian senators (three of whom are Muslim) introduced a draft resolution in the Belgian Federal Parliament that would make "Islamophobia" a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment.
The draft text -- which, among other objectives, seeks to equate "Islamophobia" with anti-Semitism -- is audacious in scope and if passed would pose a devastating blow to the exercise of free speech in Belgium.
According to the authors of the resolution, a person would be guilty of Islamophobia if he or she:
• Considers Islam to be a single monolithic bloc, closed and static, incapable of adapting to new situations;
• Considers Islam to be separate and "different," devoid of having any aims or shared values with other cultures, not influenced by other cultures and not influencing other cultures;
• Considers Islam to be inferior to the West, to be barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist;
• Considers Islam to be violent, threatening and supportive of terrorism, actively engaged in a 'clash of civilizations';
• Considers Islam to be a political ideology, used for political and military purposes to establish its hegemony;
• Rejects out of hand criticisms made by Islam of 'the West';
• Shows hostility towards Islam to justify discrimination and social exclusion of Muslims;
• Accepts hostility toward Muslims as natural and normal.
This definition of Islamophobia, which is based on a 1997 report published by the London-based Runnymede Trust, would effectively outlaw any critical discussion of Islam in Belgium under the guise of combatting racism. Read the whole article » | Soeren Kern * | Tuesday, April 30, 2013
* Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
