Incitement to Hypocrisy

Dalrymple observes in City Journal that the recent conviction of Dutch politician Geert Wilders on grounds of incitement to discrimination – “in other words, not even discrimination itself” – was wildly illogical, probably made Wilders more popular rather than less, and was itself applied discriminatorially:

The Guardian article, oddly enough, was accompanied by a photograph of some Muslim protesters in Amsterdam holding up banners in favor of sharia law….“Sharia for the Netherlands,” said one banner. “Islam will dominate the world, freedom can go to hell,” said another.

Anyone who advocates sharia can plausibly be said to incite discrimination….Were, then, these protesters charged with incitement to discrimination?….I think it is a fair supposition, however, that no action was taken against them.

The law against incitement to discrimination is therefore implemented in a discriminatory way, something that those even marginally susceptible to Wilders’s rhetoric won’t fail to notice, though the readers of the Guardian probably will.

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