Freedom of speech & Joris Jochemsen

Joris Jochemsen is my new hero. He points out my concern about Dutch society with regards to discrimination & free speech.

Last Saturday he was arrested for giving out leaflets in Amsterdam which contained collection of what Wilders and members of his PVV Party were saying with a twist. Joris substituted "Islam" and "Moslem" with "Judaism" and "Jews" in all their saying. So one would find sentence like ‘I deny nobody family life. Not even the Jews . They can marry, they can co-habit. Only not in the Netherlands’. Doesnt it remind you of the 3rd Reich? How come he got arrested spreading 10 leaflets like this, but Wilders didn't even got a warning from the police saying the same thing about Moslem on telly?

This worker of tax office who is active for the SP party in his hometown Zutphen wanted to be prosecuted. He did it to prove how terribly racist Wilders' ideas are, and not to hurt/insult the jewish community. All these time I found most of the Dutch didnt care enough with all the racist remarks by Wilders and his gang. In fact, a lot of Dutch (about 600000 of them) are even supporting him, giving him 9 seats at the Lower House of Dutch parlement.

The Public Prosecution Office now has to decide if they are going to prosecute Jochemsen for discrimination. If they did, he prepares to be jailed, hoping that Wilders is also facing the same fate.

I share Jochemsen concern about Dutch double standard. I keep hearing people championing freedom of speech when it's about anti-islam movies or cartoons.

Does freedom of speech mean one can hurt/insult others as one please? Does freedom of speech mean it is ok to insult certain group but not the other? Where do you draw the line between freedom of speech and blatantly spreading hatred? How come when it comes to being insulted, the moslem are expected to grow up and able to handle 'criticism', but when it comes to Jewish community it is anti-semit and you could go to jail for that?

Dont get me wrong, I think the moslem do need to clean their house, and able to handle criticism more elegantly. Freedom of speech is a must, but I also do think that freedom of speech has its limit, and it is applicable to all not just to a certain group.