What Was Behind the Trial of Geert Wilders? by George Igler.

Friday’s conviction of Geert Wilders [was] on two charges, “inciting discrimination and insulting a minority group,” for asking supporters whether they wanted “fewer Moroccans” in the Netherlands, at a small public rally in a bar in The Hague, on March 19, 2014. …

Geert Wilders, with the white hair, behind his bodyguards

It was grossly unfair and selected Wilders for special treatment:

Several Dutch Labour Party politicians, who said far more damaging things about Moroccans than Wilders did, yet were never prosecuted:

– “We also have sh*t Moroccans over here.” — Rob Oudkerk, a Dutch Labour Party (PvDA) politician.
– “We must humiliate Moroccans.” — Hans Spekman, PvDA politician.
– “Moroccans have the ethnic monopoly on trouble-making.” — Diederik Samsom, PvDA politician. …

There is also compelling evidence that much that is preached from the Koran in mosques daily would clearly fall under such a definition of “hate speech” — also remaining curiously outside the attention of public prosecutors. …

So how can Europeans protest the immigration they never consented to:

How are ordinary, decent, native Europeans ever likely socially and politically to articulate how they never consented to being part of a “grand experiment,” without incurring the stain of bigotry accompanying this reasonable assertion, from friends and co-workers alike?

Are loyal citizens being cowed into silence, as in the world’s most totalitarian nations, by prosecutions that can justifiably be seen as “making an example” of those who fail to toe whatever is the current political line?

The system is trying to prevent public support building for Wilders:

More sinisterly, with three months until the polls open in the Netherlands, the verdict against Wilders may have had little to do with either incitement or “hate speech,” and everything to do with a desire to curtail precisely the sort of public rallies which were hallmarks of both victories led by Nigel Farage in Great Britain and Donald Trump in the United States.

hat-tip Stephen Neil