Kenneth Sikorski of The Tundra Tabloids reports here on the verdict of a Finnish court that has convicted Helsinki Councilman Jussi Halla-aho of  "defamation of religion" --  i.e., blasphemy about Islam -- for criticizing Mohammed/Islam on the councilman's (Finnish) blog Scripta.

What did Halla-aho say? As far as I can tell from scarce English-language posts about the story, he called Mohammed, a man who married a six-year-old, infamously consumating (if you can call it that) the marriage when the child was nine, a pedophile, and "insulted" the lawlessnes prevalent in Somali immigrant culture.

The penalty, a thirty-day fine of 330 Euros, is of little consequence, but the verdict is a milestone marking the official deployment of thought police deep into Finnish society -- into monitoring and controlling speech. The Finnish state, with this verdict, has assumed the role of protector of "religion" -- although the only religion to be so protected is, of course, Islam. This may seem to be a strange development for a small Northern European country that may be aptly described as exotically remote. Indeed, what could the Muslim population possibly amount to up there? I asked Ken for numbers and he replied that the Finnish population  for 2008 is 5,244,749, including some 40 000 Muslims -- less than one percent.

Lesson: It doesn't take many Muslims in a cultishly multicultural society to enforce sharia.

Most priceless part of the verdict comes via Finland for Thought, which writes: "Surprisingly the charge on blasphemy stuck, even though that very law had been regarded as a dead letter since the 1960’s. According to the court `facts or logic do not have significance in religious discussion.' "

And forget about on any factual or logical discussion of "religion."