http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2211
Secularist Europe Silences Pro-Lifers and Creationists

From the desk of Paul Belien on Sat, 2007-06-23 18:53

Last week, a German court sentenced a 55-year old Lutheran pastor to
one year in jail for "Volksverhetzung" (incitement of the people)
because he compared the killing of the unborn in contemporary Germany
to the holocaust. Next week, the Council of Europe is going to vote on
a resolution imposing Darwinism as Europe's official ideology. The
European governments are asked to fight the expression of creationist
opinions, such as young earth and intelligent design theories.
According to the Council of Europe these theories are "undemocratic"
and "a threat to human rights."
Without legalized abortion the number of German children would
increase annually by at least 150,000 - which is the number of legal
abortions in birth dearth Germany. Pastor Johannes Lerle compared the
killing of the unborn to the killing of the Jews in Auschwitz during
the Second World War. On 14 June, a court in Erlangen ruled that, in
doing so, the pastor had "incited the people" because his statement
was a denial of the holocaust of the Jews in Nazi-Germany. Hence, Herr
Lerle was sentenced to one year in jail. Earlier, he had already spent
eight months in jail for calling abortionists "professional killers" -
an allegation which the court ruled to be slanderous because,
according to the court, the unborn are not humans.
Other German courts convicted pro-lifers for saying that "in abortion
clinics, life unworthy of living is being killed," because this
terminology evoked Hitler's euthanasia program, which used the same
language. In 2005, a German pro-lifer, G=FCnter Annen, was sentenced to
50 days in jail for saying "Stop unjust [rechtswidrige] abortions in
[medical] practice," because, according to the court, the expression
"unjust" is understood by laymen as meaning illegal, which abortions
are not.
Volksverhetzung is a crime which the Nazis often invoked against their
enemies and which contemporary Germany also uses to intimidate
homeschoolers. Soon, the German authorities will be able to use the
same charge against people who question Darwin's evolution theory.
Indeed, next Tuesday, the Council of Europe (CoE), Europe's main human-
rights body, will vote on a proposal which advocates the fight against
creationism, "young earth" and "intelligent design" in its 47 member
states.
According to a report of the CoE's Parliamentary Assembly,
creationists are dangerous "religious fundamentalists" who propagate
"forms of religious extremism" and "could become a threat to human
rights." The report adds that the acceptance of the science of
evolutionism "is crucial to the future of our societies and our
democracies."
"Creationism, born of the denial of the evolution of species through
natural selection, was for a long time an almost exclusively American
phenomenon," the report says.
"Today creationist theories are tending to find their way into Europe
and their spread is affecting quite a few Council of Europe member
states. [...] [T]his is liable to encourage the development of all
manner of fundamentalism and extremism, synonymous with attacks of
utmost virulence on human rights. The total rejection of science is
definitely one of the most serious threats to human rights and civic
rights. [...] The war on the theory of evolution and on its proponents
most often originates in forms of religious extremism which are
closely allied to extreme right-wing political movements. The
creationist movements possess real political power. The fact of the
matter, and this has been exposed on several occasions, is that the
advocates of strict creationism are out to replace democracy by
theocracy. [...] If we are not careful, the values that are the very
essence of the Council of Europe will be under direct threat from
creationist fundamentalists."
According to the CoE report, America and Australia are already on
their way towards becoming such undemocratic theocracies where human
and civic rights are endangered. Creationism is "well-developed in the
English-speaking countries, especially the United States and
Australia," the report states.
"While most curricula in Europe today unashamedly teach evolution as a
recognised scientific theory, the same does not apply to the United
States. In July 2005, the Pew Research Center conducted a poll that
showed that 64% of Americans favoured the teaching of intelligent
design alongside the theory of evolution and that 38% would support
the total abandonment of the teaching of evolution in publicly owned
schools. The American President George W. Bush supports the principle
of teaching both intelligent design and the theory of evolution. At
the moment, 20 of the 50 American states are facing potential
adjustments of their school curricula in favour of intelligent design.
Many people think that this phenomenon only affects the United States
and that, even if it is not possible to be indifferent to what is
happening on the other side of the Atlantic, it is not the Council of
Europe's role to deal with this issue. That, however, is not the case.
On the contrary, it would seem crucial for us to take the appropriate
precautions in our 47 member states."
Though one may disagree with people who take the Book of Genesis
literally (believing that God created the world in six days and rested
on the seventh), surely secularist political organizations telling
people what they may or may not believe, constitute a far greater
threat to human rights than religious institutions telling their
faithful how to vote. In the voting booth people are free to do what
they like, whilst in contemporary Europe people are no longer free to
publicly voice their own, deeply felt opinions in public.
In Germany, believing abortion to be as murderous as the holocaust is
a crime, and educating your own children is a crime too. In France,
saying that "homosexual behaviour endangers the survival of humanity"
is a crime, and so is the distribution of pork soup to the poor. In
Belgium, speaking out against immigration is a crime.
In the latest issue of the Dutch conservative magazine Bitter Lemon
the Dutch author Erik van Goor writes that European courts are
silencing conservative and orthodox citizens. Freedom of speech no
longer exist, says van Goor.
"While many in the West still idolize the second-hand fighters for
free speech, such as [Ayaan] Hirsi Ali and Theo van Gogh, the true
victims of curtailment are deliberately kept under wraps. Hirsi Ali,
[Pim] Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh were not curtailed by the state or by
court, Johannes Lerle is. The former voiced mere opinions -
expressions of a public opinion which one may or may not value or
believe. The latter - Dr Lerle - shows that what is at stake is not
merely opinions, but a moral order which is being questioned; a
reality of life and death which is at risk."
Hirsi Ali, Fortuyn and van Gogh did not defend Europe's traditional
Christian moral order. People such as Johannes Lerle and Christian
Vanneste, the French parliamentarian who was convicted for
"homophobia," do. The latter are being persecuted by Western Europe's
political regimes - a phenomenon which is ignored completely by the
Western mainstream media, who participate in the persecution.

Update
A quote from Reuters, 25 June 2007:
Europe's main human rights body on Monday cancelled a scheduled vote
on banning creationist and intelligent design views from school
science classes, saying the proposed resolution was one-sided. [...] Guy
Lengagne, the French Socialist member of the Assembly who drew up the
report, protested after the Parliamentary Assembly voted to call off
the debate and vote, and [approved a proposal of the Flemish Christian-
Democrat Luc Van den Brande] to send the report back to committee for
further study. [...] Deputies said the motion by the Christian
Democratic group of parliamentarians also won support from east
European deputies, who recalled that Darwinian evolution was a
favorite theory of their former communist rulers.