A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.
Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
“In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to… draw a clear line,” the court in Amsterdam said.
Mr Wilders said the judgement was an “attack on the freedom of expression”.

So far so good, right? “Hate speech” laws are clearly wrong. Anybody should be able to make “anti-Islamic” statements. Except get a load of what else Geert wants.

A year earlier, Mr Wilders described the Koran as a “fascist book” and called for it to be banned in “the same way we ban Mein Kampf”, in a letter published in the De Volkskrant newspaper.

So the trial should never happen in the first place but, if it does, I hope both sides lose.