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Thursday, April 19, 2007
From the title, you would think I must be talking about China or North Korea. Unfortunately, I am not. Just today, the European Union enacted new rules regarding racism and "hate crimes."
In a declaration, EU justice and interior ministers said the rules would aim to make a crime "incitement to hatred and violence and publicly condoning, denying or grossly trivializing crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes."
...
The proposal calls on EU nations to punish those who publicly incite violence or hatred based on a person or group's race, color, religion, descent or ethnic origin.
On the face, it sounds decent enough. I mean, who is in favor of those who deny the Holocaust or incite violence against other people? Almost everyone would agree that such people are scum. However, this is in fact a very dangerous law. Today it criminalizes those who deny genocides, tomorrow it could easily criminalize those who stand up to radical Islam (or any other vile ideology) and call its supporters "evil." This is just another rule in a long line of ones which have put a chilling effect on free speech in Europe. It would seem that sticks and stones are fine in Europe, but words are beyond the pale. Yet somehow, I seriously doubt that the imams currently recruiting terrorists all over Europe and INCITING VIOLENCE will face any charges under these new laws.

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Darius' book montage

The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Overcoming Sin and Temptation
According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible
Disciplines of a Godly Man
Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
Respectable Sins
The Kite Runner
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak
Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, ... anabaptist/anglican, metho
Show Them No Mercy
The Lord of the Rings
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
The Chronicles of Narnia
Les Misérables


Darius Teichroew's favorite books »