[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6289]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   GEERT WILDERS AND NOW ``SOUTH PARK'' ARE DENIED FREEDOM OF SPEECH

  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. Madam Speaker, freedom of speech is under attack in 
the West today, brought to you by the same radical Islamic terrorists 
who use religion to kill in the name of hate. I've talked about Dutch 
lawmaker Geert Wilders, who is on trial in Amsterdam for insulting 
Islam. You see, he made a documentary movie about real terrorist acts 
and real radical Islamic clerics encouraging violence in the name of 
hate. Instead of being grateful for shining a light on this problem, 
the Dutch Government is putting Geert Wilders on trial. He is charged 
with discrimination and incitement to hatred, all for showing the world 
how radical Islamic clerics discriminate and incite people to hatred. 
Wilders spoke the truth, and he got charged with a crime in his own 
country.
  The Dutch Ministry of Justice says it doesn't matter if Wilders was 
telling the truth. The Dutch court says it's irrelevant whether 
Wilders' assertions actually are correct. What is relevant to the court 
is Wilders cannot speak freely about radical Islam because it might 
offend somebody. In the Netherlands the truth is no longer welcome in a 
court of law.
  Geert Wilders now lives under a threat of a 5-year prison sentence 
from his own government for freedom of speech for the right to tell the 
truth. His trial is set to resume in July, the trial where the Dutch 
court says truth doesn't matter. It only matters if Wilders' words hurt 
somebody's feelings. You see, Dutch law is intolerant of people who are 
intolerant of violence in the name of Islam. And that's a recipe for 
disaster. By denying free, truthful speech, the Dutch Government by its 
actions is encouraging radicals to incite violence worldwide.
  Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, grandnephew of the legendary artist 
Vincent van Gogh, also made a film the radical clerics didn't like. His 
was about Islam's harsh treatment of women and how they brutalized 
women and used them as property. The result, van Gogh was murdered in 
the streets of Amsterdam as he rode his bicycle to work. His partner in 
the film, now a former member of Parliament, fled the country in fear.
  Kurt Westergaard is one of the 12 artists who drew a satirical 
cartoon about the prophet Mohammed. So radical clerics incited their 
followers to murder people in the streets around the globe. Most of the 
clerics admitted later they had never seen the Mohammed cartoons. And 
Westergaard now lives in hiding under an armed guard. So much for 
freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
  Now the threats of violence are spreading to the United States. The 
popular animated TV program ``South Park'' insults everybody. It's a 
comedy program that uses satire to make social statements. ``South 
Park's'' creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, did a series of episodes 
that insulted various world religions, including Islam. The 200th 
episode broadcast depicted all the founders of the major religions. 
Mohammed was dressed in a bear suit because Islam forbids its followers 
to depict the religion's founders.
  One radical Islamic Web site called ``Revolutionary Muslim'' is upset 
about the program, so they issued threats saying ``South Park'' 
creators Stone and Parker would end up like Theo van Gogh, in other 
words, dead. And they put up the crime scene photos of van Gogh with 
his throat slit and a knife protruding from his chest. They also gave 
out the TV network address of Comedy Central in New York, addresses for 
Parker and Stone's Los Angeles production company, and their 
residences. The radical Web site said they published the addresses so 
people could go out there and protest. Yeah, right.
  The trouble is we have seen worldwide how these radicals protest. 
They kill people. Because of the threats of violence and fear for the 
safety of everyone from the receptionist to the series creators, Comedy 
Central censored and spiked a follow-up program. Free speech was 
intimidated again by radical Islamics. These terrorists are being 
handed veto power over free speech through threats of violence and 
murder.
  No charges have been brought in the United States against the author 
of these radical Islamic Web sites. Meanwhile, Geert Wilders is still 
on trial in the Netherlands for warning the world about these haters 
for speaking the truth.
  And that's just the way it is.

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