Posted on 04/09/2002 3:44:15 PM PDT by knighthawk
Dutch court acquits Muslim cleric of discrimination charges after anti-gay statement.
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) _ A Dutch court Monday ruled that a Muslim cleric who denounced homosexuality as a contagious disease could not be convicted of discrimination charges because he has a constitutional right to religious freedom.
Imam Khalil el Moumni was accused of promoting discrimination of homosexuals and inciting hatred against them for remarks he made on national television last May.
At a hearing before a three-judge panel of the Rotterdam court two weeks ago, prosecutors demanded the cleric to be fined for 1,200 euros (dlrs 1,056).
Presiding Judge S. van Klaveren said he considered the remarks to be discriminatory but said the defendant should not be convicted because he was speaking as a cleric.
"The court finds that the suspect could base his comments on texts of the Quran and on remarks by the prophet," the presiding judge said in his ruling. "The suspect can successfully claim that he is allowed to make the challenged remarks."
Prosecutors said they plan to appeal.
El Moumni, an immigrant from Morocco, did not attend the hearing.
Prosecutors filed charges against him four months ago after they received complaints from 50 organizations about his remarks during the prominent Nova TV-program.
"Homosexuality is damaging for Dutch society," said El Moumni. "Homosexuality isn't limited to people with this disease. It can spread."
El Moumni, 60, later apologized, saying he hadn't intended to hurt anyone.
But the statements had touched a nerve in the liberal Netherlands, which last year became the first country to legalize gay marriages.
Parliament is reviewing legislation to double prison sentences for hate crime offenders to two years and impose a maximum fine of 25,000 guilders (dlrs 10,000).
El Moumni wasn't allowed to be an imam no longer in Morocco, because of his fundamentalist nature. He was asked to become an imam here in the Netherlands in Rotterdam, the city of wich 43% of the citizens are immigrants. Nice people live there:
Suspects in Rotterdam had videotapes Bin Laden (Holland)
Also he said that all homosexuals should be killed. His comments were 'apologized' by an islamic scholar who said he didn't mean it this way: what he ment to say was homosexuals should be killed only when law permits it! (Think Saudi Arabia)
This is the way it goes here. If the islamaniacs call out for hate, death and violence, it's freedom of religion (so they at least admit islam is not a religion of peace and tolerance) it's okay. (Remember Salman Rushdie?)
The muslims are alway able to get away with things like this. Where are the socialists/human rights activists/liberals who condemn people like Pim Fortuyn (calling him a nazi and comparing him to people like Eichmann while Fortuyn is a big Israel supporter!) but are silent now?
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
Exactly. It's the politically correct religion of peace (TM). If a Christian would have said those things?
And the Dutch court figured he'd get beat up and mugged by some angry Afghanis, since so many of them are bone smugglers. After the fall of the Taliban, the Afghanis have to catch up for all the butt pirating that they missed out on during the Taliban rule.
a barrage of words from the PC-brigade, national condemnment in the media, a place on the rascist internet page, you name it!
Let's build a new religion, call it anti-jihad and maybe we can say it then. Who I am kidding, of course not, the PC-brigade would allow no one to insult their cuddly toys!
Muslim science. Oh well, let's send Rosie O'Donald and Barney Frank over to sneeze on him.
By the way, were the remarks provoked by Pim Fortuyn's growing political success?
Go Pim Fortuyn!
Gadaffi: Our New Friend (Really!?)
Here's one from 10/24:
Define terrorism, urges Gaddafi
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has entered the debate on terrorism - telling a TV interviewer that the US might just as well bomb London if it is serious about fighting terrorism."If the United States wants seriously to eradicate terrorism, the first capital that should be pounded with cruise missiles is London," Colonel Gaddafi said on the Arabic satellite news channel al-Jazeera.
"It is the shelter of terrorism," he added, referring to charges that Islamic militants suspected of violence are protected by Britain's policies on political asylum.
And here's an interesting analysis of Gaddafi's future:
BTW, is that the book that talks about the 6+2 threats against the Taliban regime before 9/11?
So only clerics have freedom of religion in the Netherlands, or are there other protected groups as well? Do they also recognise something called "freedom of speech," or is that just an American thing?
I'm inferring that the poster has nothing against "hate speech" laws; there we part company. But I'm not Dutch, so I'll leave them to the mercy of their democratic institutions. At least certain persons are allowed to say certain things at certain times: that's enough "democracy" for most anyone, right?
Yes, the very same book.
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