
From the sharp pen of the Baron at Gates of Vienna (links in the original):
It’s important to remember that Geert Wilders is not the first European politician to be prosecuted for telling the truth about Islam, nor will he be the last.
Last November I reported on the case of Susanne Winter, an Austrian politician and member of Parliament for the FPÖ, who was charged with incitement for public statements she made about Islam.
As a reminder, here’s the description of her “crimes”:
“In today’s system” the Prophet Muhammad would be considered a “child molester,” apparently referring to his marriage to a six-year-old child. She also said that it is time for Islam to be “thrown back where it came from, behind the Mediterranean.”
Yesterday Susanne Winter was convicted of the charges against her and given a three-month suspended sentence plus a substantial fine. The news in German may be found here, and a brief report in English is available at Earth Times:
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Vienna — Austrian far-right parliamentarian Susanne Winter was convicted Thursday of incitement because of her anti-Muslim statements, including the claim that Islam’s prophet Mohammed was a paedophile. A court in Winter’s home town of Graz also found the 51-year-old politician guilty of humiliating a religion. She was sentenced to a fine of 24,000 euros (31,000 dollars) euros and a suspended prison term of three months, Austrian news agency APA reported.
The politician, who took a seat in parliament last fall for the Freedom Party (FPOe), made the anti-Islamic remarks in January 2008.
She also proposed in a discussion with students that Muslim men should commit bestiality rather than making “indecent advances” on girls.
The politician had pleaded innocent Thursday, claiming that she “did not want to insult anyone, but only to point out problems.”
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
Winter’s son Michael, a former youth leader in the Freedom Party, was convicted of the same crime last October. He had suggested in a newsletter that Turkish Muslims were in the habit of committing bestiality.
As Robert Spencer says, “Is truth no defense?”