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He could end up serving more time than some jihadists in European criminal justice systems do on terrorism charges.
More on the circumstances of Gregorius Nekschot's arrest, including the charges and possible penalties he faces. "Dutch cartoonist arrested," by Toby Sterling for the Associated Press, May 16 (thanks to GS):
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A Dutch political cartoonist is facing possible hate crimes charges.
The cartoonist, who works under the pseudonym Gregorius Nekschot, was arrested Tuesday and held overnight before being released.
Officials say a criminal investigation is continuing into whether Nekschot's work targets people because of their race or religion.
Nekschot is known primarily for cartoons mocking Muslims and leftists.
However, spokeswoman for his publisher describes him as a satirist who targets "any strong ideology." [...]
A spokeswoman for the Amsterdam public prosecutor, Sanne van Meteren, said Nekschot remains a suspect in a criminal investigation.
"We suspect him of insulting people on the basis of their race or belief, and possibly also of inciting hate," she said.
Each is a crime punishable by up to a year in prison under Dutch hate laws - or two years for multiple offences.
Van Meteren said prosecutors were investigating a complaint that dates to 2005. They are now focusing on eight or nine published cartoons, she said, but prosecutors are not disclosing which ones.
Nekschot did not answer police questions during his arrest, she said, citing his right to remain silent to avoid self-incrimination.
The spokeswoman for Xtra said police had seized Nekschot's computer, sketches, CDs, DVDs and telephone at the time of his arrest.
CSI meets Orwell, in a story that has all of the trappings of a counter-terror operation -- except it's about cartoons.
Posted by Marisol at May 16, 2008 12:01 PM
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'....his publisher describes him as a satirist who targets "any strong ideology." [...]
How could a 'strong ideology' become so brittle by the pen of a cartoonist? Nekschot doesn't have the First Amendment on his side, which again proves how incredibly rare it is.
Posted by: Bosch Fawstin![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 16, 2008 12:34 PM
This is scary as hell. "Insulting" is a subjective term. Who is going to judge whether or not these cartoons are insulting?
God, these people need to grow up. I can't think of a single religious group, or ideological group, or political group, or ethnic group who has not been the butt of someone else's jokes.
If that which does not destroy us makes us stronger, these "offended" parties are too fragile to exist.
That sounds Darwinian, doesn't it? Darwinians-- another group considered laughable by some. Yet, they survive...
Posted by: Abscedere at May 16, 2008 12:36 PM
It is sad to see a country that was recognized as being a bastion of liberalness, of freedom of expression, and freedom of speech falling under the intimidation of the aggressive ideology that is Islam.
It is amazingly pitiful how some are not willing to defend their human rights in the face of Islamic threats. You need more Geert Wilders, and Ayaan Hirsi Ally's in the Netherlands to preserve your countries traditions from this invasion.
I have family in the Netherlands and have visited on occassions, talking with survivors of the Nazi Invasion. I have a relative who bears a concentration camp number even though he was not Jewish but of Dutch Christian Reform.
They said they would never let this happen again,they may be sadly wrong.
Posted by: Mackie at May 16, 2008 12:42 PM
More information about Nekschot (in Dutch):
http://www.hoeiboei.web-log.nl/
Posted by: AVe at May 16, 2008 1:30 PM
Just what the muslim free speech suppressors have been pining for...halt the cartoons that make everyone realize that they are a band of fools! Let's hope that this chilling development is stopped in its tracks and freedom of expression and speech will continue unabated in the land of my ancestors.
Posted by: PatrickHenry at May 16, 2008 2:11 PM
The guy should flee to Canada and claim refugee status. The Canadian refugee system will accept any claim and it takes years before they give you a hearing. Even coming over and claiming refugee status would embarrass the Dutch government.
Posted by: James Martel at May 16, 2008 2:20 PM
Very chilling. thank God for the United States Constitution.
/Have I enjoyed my last Grolsch?
at May 16, 2008 2:39 PM
Whatever happened to good old fistfights? Someone insults you, you punch 'em in the nose.
Posted by: MontJoie at May 16, 2008 2:49 PM
Hello the Dutch; People wearing islamic style headscarves and caps and building mosques in western countries not only insults me it terrorizes me. Can we go after people who wear scary attire? Remember, cartoons never hurt anyone but islamist did and do all the time with their evil ideology.
Posted by: maunalio at May 16, 2008 2:49 PM
It is sad but this Iman is only using this 3 year old Cartoon & Cartoonist as their own personal Martyr. If somehow someway they can convince the court that this is promting hate & discrimination blah blah blah, then they can go after what they really want.....Wilders.
Posted by: Ladywolfnl at May 16, 2008 3:05 PM
>It is sad to see a country that was recognized
>as being a bastion of liberalness, of freedom of
>expression, and freedom of speech ...
Posted by: Mackie at May 16, 2008 12:42 PM
Please, that country has long gone. It's a PR myth, fed to gullible Americans for commercial purposes. Holland is the country that sent 75% of it's jews to Hitler's ovens. Keep that in mind when it boasts it's support for the poor Palestinians. Don't fool yourself into thinking that that mentality has changed.
>It is sad but this Iman is only using this 3
>year old Cartoon & Cartoonist as their own
>personal Martyr. ...
Posted by: Ladywolfnl at May 16, 2008 3:05 PM
No, the Dutch Minister of Justice Ernst (barf) Hirsch (puke) Ballin (hurl) waited 3 years to find out the identity of the cartoonist, before springing into action at the exact moment he plans to introduce anti-blasphemy legislation. He claims he could not get a hold of Nekschot's identity, which is a blatant lie. He is known as "Minister 31 November", for his lying about Wilders, when he was referring to reports that he wrote on "November 31st". Google his mug shot if you can stomach it: the guy not only acts and talks like a baboon, he looks like one as well.
Posted by: Kim Hartveld at May 16, 2008 4:17 PM
"He was arrested with a great show of force, by around 10 policemen," said the spokeswoman for the publishing company Uitgeverij Xtra.
Ernst Maurits Henricus Hirsch Ballin is a Dhimmi
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7pbJHcnE1tk
at May 16, 2008 4:19 PM
To spare you the underwear ads, this is a text only version of a gay.com news item from yesterday. I, along with many gay activists, am getting pretty sick of HRW's pandering to Islam. On the other hand, I don't understand why Die Nederlander Rijk exempts persons from western countries from the integration test. Are there not sexist homophobes in Japan?
http://www.gay.com/content/tools/print.html?coll=news_articles&sernum=2008/05/15/4&navpath=channels/news
Activists: Dutch correctness test is biased
published Thursday, May 15, 2008
A Dutch policy of forcing some would-be immigrants to pass a language and culture test before seeking a visa is discriminatory, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
The rights group said the test essentially targets families from developing nations -- in particular, Turkey and Morocco -- because citizens of the United States, Japan and other developed nations are exempt.
"The overseas integration test is discriminatory because it explicitly applies only to relatives from predominantly non-Western countries," said Human Rights Watch's European director Holly Cartner.
"These measures keep families apart and appear to be aimed at keeping certain kinds of people out of the Netherlands."
While international human rights law allows countries to discriminate between citizens and noncitizens, it doesn't allow the targeting of individual nationalities on the basis of race or religion.
"Dutch authorities would need extremely powerful reasons to justify" such discrimination, Human Rights Watch said.
The test, primarily a language exam, must be taken at Dutch embassies abroad and costs $540 per attempt. Immigrants also face visa fees amounting to hundreds of dollars per year and permanent residency or naturalization fees that cost nearly $1,500.
"The impact . . . has fallen primarily on those wanting to join family members from two of the three largest non-Western migrant communities in the Netherlands -- Moroccans and Turks," the rights group said.
Immigration from those countries has fallen sharply since the Dutch government began cracking down in 2003 amid heavy anti-Muslim rhetoric from far-right political parties.
Government spokeswoman Gerda de Lange rejected the criticism. The legality of the policy was "debated thoroughly in parliament and by the Council of State before it was passed" in 2006, she said.
"The law is not discriminatory," she said. "There are indeed exemptions for some countries, but that's true of the whole of immigration law."
All EU citizens, for example, are exempt from the test because European law forbids discrimination between members of EU states. Other countries had pre-existing treaties with the Dutch government on immigration.
She also denied that the policy discriminates against Moroccans and Turks, saying they make up only one-third of applicants.
"The law is intended to ensure that immigrants are better prepared to integrate. They will have more chance of succeeding if they know the basics of Dutch language, history and culture before they arrive," she said.
"If their aim is to build a new life here, they should begin acquiring the knowledge they'll need," she said.
The test made international headlines when it was introduced because preparatory materials include a film with scenes of gay men kissing and a woman walking bare-breasted on the beach -- considered an essential introduction to liberal Dutch culture.
If would-be immigrants can't stomach such practice, no need to apply, the film implied. (AP)
at May 16, 2008 4:32 PM
They'll be rounding up Immams by the dozen then after Friday prayers. What, no?
Well there's a surprise.
at May 16, 2008 5:03 PM
Ages ago Voltaire was to be published in Amsterdam. These days with mayor Cohen and his Labour party PvdA you have to worry if you are publishing cartoons which doesn't show the meaning you 'ought to' have. Then you can expect a SWAT-team of 10 police-officers to take you in for a few days in jail.
Posted by: sjun de martelaere at May 16, 2008 5:36 PM
Why not insult Muslims? they insult us with their beliefs....hatred of the infidels. It's not a crime to insult neo-Nazis or the KKK or Scientologists or any other whacko cults. And make no mistake, Islam is a cult and a dangerous one. So to arrest this guy for insulting Muslims is an insult to free speech and an act of appeasement.
This cartoonist has exercised his right to free expression and produced work that can be deemed offensive or insulting to Christians,Jews and Muslims. But they only arrest him when he 'insults' Muslims. This is outrageous and if this surrendering to Muslim demands continues there will be a civil war. Nobody has the right not to be offended and when the Dutch realise the arrogant and supremacist game the Muslims are playing, they will fight back and hopefully elect someone into power(Wilders?) who is willing to defend their culture and not humiliate themselves and betray their people by brown nosing the Islamofascists.
at May 16, 2008 5:45 PM
Can someone provide a link to reproductions of the particular cartoons, by this Dutch fellow, that were deemed so offensive to Muslims?
Let's see what they're like.
Perhaps one or two might even be T-shirt-worthy - like Westergaard's wonderful turban-bomb 'Mohammed', the one I think of as 'mohammed ha-meshugga'.
at May 16, 2008 7:54 PM
What exactly was the content of my last post about socalled politicians in Holland that got me yanked? This place is starting to get more PC than the UK!
Posted by: Dumbo at May 16, 2008 10:46 PM
Dumbo-- it's on the other thread:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/021042.php#c541885
Nothin' wrong with that.
Posted by: MarisolJW at May 16, 2008 10:49 PM
The Netherlands--pissing away a proud tradition of freedom of speech. Please pardon my language--I am outraged!
I did a search for Gregorius Nekschot's work and ran accross this site. Lots of Mohammed cartoons--some are ineptly drawn, some are quite marvelous. Some are gratuitously insulting and just gross, some deal with serious issues. We should support all the cartoonists, regardless, on principle.
There is a cartoon by Gegorius Nekschot second from the bottom. It depicts Mohammed deflowering little Aisha, who has just dropped her doll. It is extremely well-drawn--his work rather reminds me of the American cartoonist now living in France, Robert Crumb. It also has a very important point to make--the graphic depiction of pedophilia is more disturbing than any description could ever be.
It is appalling that this artist is being persecuted!
Here's the link"
http://www.nordish.net/mohammed_image_archive/extreme_mohammed/
Posted by: gravenimage at May 16, 2008 11:43 PM
Some of the exhibiting drawings of Gregorius Nekschot are shown here: http://uitingsvrij.6.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=42&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Posted by: sjun de martelaere at May 17, 2008 1:46 AM
Muslim cartoons banned today...political cartoons tomorrow...ALL CARTOONS THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW! I don't know anything about your court system, but I hope the judge tells your government prosecutors, "Don't waste the court's time with any more charges like this! Dismissed!"
Posted by: PatrickHenry at May 17, 2008 2:50 AM
Who would have thought the so-called liberal Dutch politicians would take a fascistic approach to a cartoonist simply because he expresses, or someone says he expresses, offensive views? If freedom of speech only protects views that offend no one, then what need is there for freedom of speech laws? Who would ever try to silence speech that no one finds offensive? So why bother to protect it with freedom of speech laws? The Dutch government in this case has badly lost its way. They need to reform and expand their freedom of speech laws, and they need a social education program that teaches people that civilized society permits all kinds of speech, including the kinds that a majority or minorities might find offensive. The best remedy for bad speech is not repression, but more speech, criticism, debate. Otherwise society goes blind.
Posted by: traeh at May 17, 2008 3:24 AM
It's a crime to insult people? Here's a suggestion, then. The Koran is deeply insulting to me. It is insulting to me as a woman, and it is insulting to me as a non-Muslim. No doubt there are a few million or even a few billion people out there who share my sentiments. Perhaps it is time to throw all these silly laws straight back into the faces of the Islamists and all their dhimmi enablers, and to instigate a legal action against the Koran and various other written works widely read and distributed by Muslims, based entirely upon existing "human rights" and "anti-hate" laws. It would be an interesting experiment.
Posted by: angloirishslav at May 17, 2008 3:52 AM
A slide show of some of the forbidden cartoons can be found on you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL4tdIbMKfQ
Posted by: pjotr at May 17, 2008 7:18 AM
I visited the Gregorius Nekschot website yesterday while it was still up and running. A couple of hours later - no website. It didn't take long for the powers that be to have it pulled down.
His cartoons are very well drawn, funny, too. You can still find some, if you google Gregorius Nekschot images.
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at May 17, 2008 9:19 AM
For our arabic readers:
http://arabic.rnw.nl/dutchaffairs/16050803
One of the disputed cartoons:
http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/images/verbodencartoonnekschot.jpg
There was, and is, a lot of discussion about a statue for the period of slavery in The Netherlands. Dutch people from Surinam and Antillian origin and left wing parties demand that the dutch government and it's people pay tribute (and some money of course) to all the victims of slavery.
Mmmm, I remember some postings of Robert Spencer where the role of african and arabic countries in slavery was described.
Is this cartoon a "hate crime"? Get lost!
Posted by: Gordon Shandling at May 17, 2008 11:56 AM
Speaking of Orwell, this poor cartoonist must be guilty of a "thought crime".
at May 17, 2008 5:51 PM
If this law were enforced, for real (meaning without p.c. discrimination), then every Muslim in Holland would already be in jail for following the hatespeech enshrined in the vicious Koran, that playbook of terror scribbled together by the misogynistic, intolerant, theocratic tyrant and pedophile warlord, Mohammad.
Posted by: profitsbeard at May 17, 2008 7:07 PM
"I don't understand why Die Nederlander Rijk exempts persons from western countries from the integration test. Are there not sexist homophobes in Japan?" - Skevin
Speaking as one who has lived there, Japan is not a "western" country in any sense of the word, although it is certainly a modern and developed one, and that I assume is the reason why it is exempted; also the fact that, yes, while there are still plenty of sexist homophobes there, young Japanese men (either there or abroad) don't go about in packs finding gay people to harass and beat up or vulnerable women to rape, and, while I don't know much about old Japanese history, "honour killings" have not been a problem there at least for the past couple of centuries. There are also very few Japanese, or people from Western countries, who want to emigrate to the Netherlands these days. But I suppose to make all things appear equal, they should make all immigrants write the same test, if it makes the liberal hand-wringers happy.
at May 18, 2008 3:00 AM
I'm wondering, would Amnesty International support him if he was jailed for his cartoons, and campaign for his release?
Posted by: angloirishslav at May 18, 2008 3:02 AM
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