David Duke Arrested
David Duke was arrested in the Czech Republic for suspicion of denying the Holocaust. It is illegal in many countries (such as Germany and Israel) to question the official Holocaust story. If you should express any doubt, you risk jail time.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jGZ-EV9pigOYYdOFAHahTxqyLzKg
Of course, throwing people in jail for their beliefs is nothing new. In many Islamic countries, expressing doubts about Islam can result in imprisonment or even death. However, this intolerance is not excusive to Islam. For example, it is quite dangerous for Jews in Israel to believe in Christianity. Christians have been persecuted and Bibles have been burned. (see link below).
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-22-israel-missionaries_N.htm
Christianity has also not been a stranger to intolerance. Many people were put to death based on their opposition to official Church doctrine.
The question is should we tolerate dissenting and even heretical beliefs? The arrest of David Duke shows that we have not really progressed much from the Dark Ages. Heresy can still result in imprisonment or death.
There's this silly taboo in that part of the world against questioning any part of the official history of WWII. It's a taboo based on fear -- fear that these ideas could lead to the resurrection of right wing politics in the region again. But any policy of suppression of free speech based on fear must fail. If the revisionist history is true, then the truth will out. And if it isn't, then it will be demonstrated to be clearly untrue under scrutiny. But simply suppressing speech because of fear of what it says doesn't halp knowledge progress beyond fear.
ReplyDeleteI hold no brief for Holocaust deniers, but this putting people in jail is silly. It just lets them claim censorship (accurately).
ReplyDeleteA lot of this does have to do with American traditions of absolute freedom of speech that don't exist across the pond. But it is too bad. It's part of the reason they can't do anything about the influx of Muslim immigration (Denmark appears to be cracking down...)