GREGORIUS Nekschot is a victim of our times:
“I never expected the Spanish Inquisition,” recalls the cartoonist, who goes by the nom de plume Gregorius Nekschot, quoting the British comedy team Monty Python. A fan of ribald gags, he’s a caustic foe of religion, particularly Islam. The Quran, crucifixion, sexual organs and goats are among his favorite motifs.
Mr. Nekschot, whose cartoons had appeared mainly on his own Web site, spent the night in a jail cell. Police grabbed his computer, a hard drive and sketch pads. He’s been summoned for further questioning later this month by prosecutors. He hasn’t been charged with a crime, but the prosecutor’s office says he’s been under investigation for three years on suspicion that he violated a Dutch law that forbids discrimination on the basis of race, religion or sexual orientation.
This is agsint the individual’s right to say what they please:
“This is serious. It is about freedom of speech,” says Mark Rutte, the leader of a center-right opposition party. Some of Mr. Nekschot’s oeuvre is “really disgusting,” he says, “but that is free speech
Agreed…
Posted: 14th, July 2008 | In: Twitterings, War On Terror Comments (5) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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July 15th, 2008 at 12:24 am
On the other hand, if you want to see what someone with talent might make of the whole sorry mess, I can recommend Doonesbury’s strips last week, starting at:
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080707
July 15th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Right
July 14th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
jail him…
July 14th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Yep. Bummer, isn’t it?
Of course, it also entitles us to point out that Nekschot is a crap cartoonist, with all the talent of a colour blind goat, who can only get an audience at all by doing his ‘I’m being persecuted for my beliefs’ routine at regular intervals, in the hope that somebody might finally give him the publicity fix he is in such desperate need of by arresting him.
Cruel of me, I know, but I hope they don’t…
July 14th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
His cartoons are not that good …
And “Justice minister Hirsch Ballin informed parliament on May 20, 2008 that the purpose of the police visit was the search itself and that it was only a coïncidence that the cartoonist had been present and was arrested.”
it’s been a meanwhile cooled-down debate in the Netherlands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorius_Nekschot