Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-07-Speech-2-543"
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"en.20100907.33.2-543"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, freedom of expression is under great pressure in Europe and the Netherlands. The multicultural elite is putting pressure to bear so that people quite rightly pointing out the threat posed by religions and ideologies are being persecuted. Criticism of religions and ideology is always legitimate. People’s choice to believe in something is taken of their own free will and must not inconvenience others. People are not born into a faith or ideology but embrace it because, for them, it is the truth. Yet it is their own truth; they should keep it to themselves and not inconvenience others with it. As soon as that truth professes to be a universal truth and, what is more, seeks to amend constitutional law, criminal law, civil law and so on, it becomes highly dangerous.
Criticism of a person’s ideology or faith must not be subject to persecution in any shape or form. Individual decisions and experiences cannot be above the law. Everyone has the right to cause hurt or offence; it is not always as nice to be on the receiving end, but it is the basis of freedom of expression, as caresses and words of praise do not need safeguarding. Causing hurt or offence is both possible and legitimate. The truth sometimes hurts.
At the end of the day, freedom of expression arose in order to protect citizens against oppression by tyrannical rulers. This freedom functions as a way of criticising and making adjustments to the ruling power. It represents an opportunity for ordinary citizens to make their views known to a social elite seeking to impose its particular standards and values on them.
In the Netherlands, politicians, cartoonists and columnists are being arrested, questioned or charged precisely because they have exercised this right – the right to express their views. The most noteworthy example of this is the absurd political trial against my party leader Geert Wilders. He is being prosecuted because we, the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), rightly point out the dangers of the political ideology that is Islam. Islam bears greater responsibility than any other movement or ideology for the loss of freedom of expression in our times. It threatens and intimidates anyone critical of its own socially disruptive nature.
The fight for freedom of expression is far from over. The remnants of the tyrannical rulers are still at large in Europe. The PVV would like to see a kind of ‘First Amendment’ in Europe. What is the Commission’s opinion on this? I should like to hear a response from Commissioner Kroes."@en1
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