[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3706-3707]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         FREE SPEECH IS NO LONGER RECOGNIZED IN THE NETHERLANDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the God-given right of free speech to 
all people in all nations is no longer recognized in the Netherlands. 
The Dutch Government is intolerant of intolerance for terrorists. Thou 
shalt not criticize, says their commandment.
  Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders made a documentary movie about real 
terrorist acts and real radical Islamic clerics encouraging violence in 
the name of hate. Wilders now is on trial for insulting Islam. He's 
charged with discrimination and incitement to hatred.
  In Amsterdam, it's illegal for a Christian or a Buddhist or an 
atheist or anyone else to criticize Islam because radical Islamic 
clerics will incite their followers to murder people. So the Dutch are 
no longer allowed to talk about terrorism.
  The Dutch Ministry of Justice says--get this--it doesn't matter if 
Wilders was telling the truth. The Dutch court says it's irrelevant 
whether Wilders might prove his observations to be correct. What's 
relevant is his observations are illegal.

                              {time}  1715

  Geert Wilders now lives under threat of a 5-year jail sentence from 
his own government for a violation of free speech. His trial is set to 
resume in July, the trial where the Dutch court said truth doesn't 
matter; it only matters if Wilders' words hurt somebody's feelings.
  And Wilders lives in fear under the threat of death for speaking his 
mind about radical Islam. So-called religious leaders believe their 
radical religion

[[Page 3707]]

says they can kill those who don't agree with them. Dutch filmmaker 
Theo Van Gogh, great-grand nephew of the famous painter Vincent Van 
Gogh, was a big believer in freedom of speech too. He and his partner, 
Hirsi Ali, made a documentary movie about women and Islam called 
``Submission.'' The radical clerics didn't like that one either, so 
they had Van Gogh murdered. Six terrorists were later arrested. One of 
the terrorists shot and then repeatedly stabbed Van Gogh as he rode his 
bicycle to work. He slit Van Gogh's throat and then stabbed him again, 
pinning a five-page radical rant to his body.
  The rant listed all of the things they thought Hirsi Ali, his female 
partner in the film, had done to violate the Koran. And they threatened 
her with death. At the time, she was a sitting member of the Dutch 
Parliament.
  Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia, and her family escaped when she was a 
child. She was raised a Muslim and subjected to the custom of female 
mutilation against her will. After surviving refugee camps in Africa, 
then a stay in Saudi Arabia, her family finally went to Canada. She was 
promised in marriage to a distant cousin she had never met. She refused 
that marriage and soon fled as a refugee to Holland. She became a 
warrior for women's rights, becoming an elected member of the Dutch 
Parliament. But after Theo Van Gogh's murder, she was run out of the 
country by her own government, the Dutch Government. They would not 
protect her. She was simply just too controversial. She resigned her 
seat in Parliament and she fled to the United States. She lives in this 
area around D.C.
  Kurt Westergaard is one of the 12 artists who drew cartoons of the 
prophet Mohammed. Radical clerics then incited their followers to 
murder people in the streets. They rioted and they burned down 
embassies. Most of them, by their own admission, had never even seen 
these cartoons, and Westergaard had to flee for his life. He too lives 
in the United States under armed guard.
  Threatening people and killing people for speaking their mind is just 
another form of terrorism. Van Gogh, Ali, Westergaard, and now Geert 
Wilders, have never used or advocated violence. They simply exercised 
their God-given right of free speech. So now in Amsterdam, truthful 
insult speech is a crime. What kind of free society says truthful 
speech can be illegal? The most controversial speech is political, 
religious, and even truthful speech. That is why it's protected. 
Freedom of speech is a fundamental principle, a God-given human right 
to all people in all nations. It has been said, I may not agree with 
what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it. 
But not in the Netherlands.
  Geert Wilders should be able to speak his mind without becoming an 
enemy of his own country. The enemy of free speech is the court of the 
Netherlands and radical Islamic clerics who preach violence in the name 
of hate.
  And, Mr. Speaker, that's just the way it is.

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