Belgium: Flemish Nationalists Sentenced to Prison for Anti-Islamization Banner

All opposition to the radical leftist agenda in Europe is now completely banned under various “hate speech” legislation.

Free West Media:

Four members of the conservative group Voorpost were sentenced for inciting hate and violence because of a banner announcing “Stop Islamization”. This is the latest attack on Flemish conservatives from a hostile Belgian elite ahead of the election.

The banner in question was held up at a protest in February of last year, reported Flemish news service VRT. The criminal court of Mechelen has sentenced four members of the conservative organization Voorpost for incitement of hate and violence during a protest in May 2020. On a banner under the words “Stop Islamization” were pictured some women in burkas or niqabs, and this combination, according to the court, went too far. Various Parliament members from Vlaams Belang have protested against the verdict in Mechelen.

On Saturday 30 May, 2020, at the Saturday Market in Mechelen, Voorpost held a protest against what they described as increasing Islamization. There some members also held up a banner with the words “Stop Islamization”. Under the words was depicted a row of women wearing niqabs and a second row of women with burkas.

According to the criminal court in Mechelen, the slogan and images went too far. “By having such signs and banners, the accused have the aim of instilling fear and creating hate in society by convincing onlookers of the idea that Islam may in the future dominate Flanders,” the verdict reads.

They were accused of creating an imagined danger whereby each woman, as a result of Islamization, would be forced to wear a burka or niqab. Such ideas attempt to feed on the fear and hate against Muslim society or to awaken it, so that others will be incited to engage in similar hateful and fear-mongering behaviour, the court maintained.

The four members of Voorpost were all sentenced to six months imprisonment. For three of them, this was suspended; for one the sentence went into effect. Their lawyer, Luc Deceuninck, will now look into whether they will appeal, but it seems probable. “This was just freedom of speech, a political statement, nothing else,” said Deceuninck in an initial reaction to the judgment.

“If someone says stop Islamization, they are not saying stop Islam. They are saying: Stop the pervasive influence of certain Islamic customs in our society. That is what they mean. The court actually did not answer our arguments,” said the displeased lawyer.

Vlaams Belang campaigns for free speech

Several parliamentarians from Vlaams Belang have protested in Mechelen against the verdict of the criminal court of Mechelen. On the Grand Market they unfurled banners with the same message, while holding up posters with the message, “Stop censorship”.

“The criminal conviction of the four Voorpost-activists is far beyond a miscarriage of justice. This is an attack on free speech, democracy, and the possibility of having an opposition. The resistance against Islamization is not an incitement to hate or violence. That is just freedom of speech. That is protecting what is dear to us, our identity,” said the Vlaams Belang chairman Tom Van Grieken.

Among those present were most of the leaders of the party, such as chairman Tom Van Grieken, federal group leader Barbara Pas, European Parliament member Gerolf Annemans, and some 25 Parliament members, including Flemish Parliament members Filip Dewinter, Sam Van Rooy, Anke Van Dermeersch, and Guy D’haeseleer.

Yes, there is no difference between “free speech” and “incitement to hate.”

They can ultimately say anything that you complain about is “hateful” to complain about, because they will say Jews are behind it and it is anti-Semitic to question the Jews. For example: protesting pornography is hateful against Jewish pornographers.

Saying you don’t want Moslems is hate, and eventually, also anti-Semitic, because it was the Jews’ idea to bring in all these Moslems.