JLH sends his translation of an article from Europe News about the legal travails of a Swiss blogger who dared to criticize Islam.
The translator includes this note:
This is a letter to a friend written by a young person in Switzerland who is flummoxed by the iron curtain of PC law in Switzerland. It gives us an idea of what kind of frustration lay behind the anti-minaret vote. We may have been assuming Switzerland is freer and more independent than much of the EU. Maybe; maybe not.
Hunting Down Islam-Critical Blogs in Switzerland
September 24, 2010
A good friend of mine sent me this appalling report about a blogger in Switzerland, who merely wrote and published objectively about Islam-critical things.
I am publishing this report out of solidarity with this courageous blogger and to show readers how it is possible to criticize everything except Islam in European countries:
I have no idea who keeps deleting my website but I suspect it is one and the same hacker
and/or an “internet ambulance chaser” lawyer (with mandates from people who have denounced my blog), because they are sites and blogs from various servers. First “Oyla.de”, my first site with over 1,000 pages of Islam critique since 2004, was deleted last December. Then I set up a new site (at Oyla again, but it works there and I can’t do html and also I have no money for expensive webmaster or pay domains). This second site was recently completely deleted, without reason and with no warning. I put the new one on myblog.de, everything on call. Complaining to the server makes no sense; there is just an automatic answer. Conditions of use say that sites can be deleted without notice, in case of illegal content — and that applies at will when Islam criticism is reported to authorities.In both cases, it was definitely a deletion; I can’t get into the navigation — everything is gone.
At myblog.de, which works simply, I also entered anew the old “Focus on Women” (from 2001, it was my first Islam-critical website in German) because the old site didn’t work any more, no webmaster any more. It still exists, but I can’t edit it on Lycos (not deleted! Apparently Lycos does not delete so easily, but it is harder to edit). This new blog too, at myblog.de was deleted several weeks ago. One day it was just gone. Then last year my new blog (at the server 20six) disappeared for months, but I could still access the navigation. I inquired why at the server and actually got an answer: I should look at my last entry. The last entry was a harmless satire on the attorney whose business is laying charges, Kettiger, who laid a charge against me in 2007 for “racial discrimination” because I had quoted the Koran and commented on it as a “handbook of terror.”That is supposed to be “racism.” Religion is race in Switzerland, where we have a racism law, which is never used against the Islamic, truly racist, sexist, inciters of murder against Jews, Christians and infidels. It is true that the court dismissed the charge against me, but the lawyer — whom I had made fun of in the internet as “Allah’s watchdog” — brought a complaint against me for “libel” (with no money for a lawyer, I could not bring a countersuit for libel) and I was sentenced to a fine of 800 Swiss Francs plus court costs, and my PC was impounded for three weeks! All because of a satirical remark about Allah’s watchdog!! — and he is a true watchdog!
The fact that a groundless charge of “racial discrimination,” not even recognized by the court,
is libelous and damaging to my reputation played no role for the court. (This Basel court has now acquitted an Islamicist who was propagandizing on behalf of wife-beating.) So much for the judicial background that would be in play in a legal complaint — I stand no chance there. Well, the blog that had disappeared re-appeared after several weeks or months, but the satire had disappeared from it. The same lawyer took over (presumably on the commission of the burka fraction) the complaint against the streakers in Appenzell — which cried out for satire! If my satire had been in a newspaper, he would hardly have been able to act against it, but as a blogger, one is unprotected. There are lawyers who are just waiting for the chance to bring a complaint against a blogger. That is also why I use no pictures, because of copyright — it could become a trap. This “chain complainant,” who has already brought at least 7 complaints against users of Islamic internet forums (one person was sentenced to a fine of several thousand SF for a joke about minarets and chimneys) even threatened me about the contact address of my new blog: “Just do not believe that I do not know who you are. Daniel Kettiger.” I wrote back that he just shouldn’t think I don’t know who he is. But as a lawyer, he has the advantage — he makes more in a day than I do in a month.
My parole for the payment of the fine (3 years because I am “ineducable.” That’s right! The court is not wrong about that) is not yet over. The chain complainant could strike again any time. If I had had the money for a lawyer, I would have appealed to Lausanne. But nothing can be done without a lawyer and the defense attorneys are mostly leftist and will not take any case involving the racism law. It is disgusting. Criticism of Islam is “racist.” When I inquired at the Basel Advocates’ Chamber how I could get a lawyer, they told me I was not likely to get a lawyer for a racist charge (not to mention that I couldn’t have paid for one). Wonderful news. I do not belong to a party, I have no lobby, I am fair game.
On top of that, I suspect a hacker, because now and then strange signs or arrows appear at the edge of my screen and the word Allah often generates a smiley face. I can’t check it out, because I am not technically secured. Maybe it is the prosecutor’s office, which confiscated my PC in Spring of 2008 and possibly inserted some supervisory program. I can’t go to them. They side with the Islam lobby and I am in their criminal files with photo and fingerprints! Criticism disturbs the “religious peace” with Islam. And also the peace of the national churches who are making their deal with Islam and are stabbing the chapel congregations in the back.
On top of all that, my fourth blog completely disappeared recently, also on server 20.six, where I had translated many articles by ex-Muslim Sami Alrabaa and also regularly included pro-Israel articles by Eli Hertz — nothing illegal that could in any way justify deleting a blog. But I am powerless against it. I can only re-submit everything anew at WordPress. It doesn’t seem to be censored so much there. But it takes a lot of time and I am still not up to date.
I suspect either a Muslim hacker (since the minaret initiative, they have their eye on Swiss bloggers) or reactions to threats of this attorney who has me by the nose in these servers, and they obey. So in the meantime I have several blogs, but everything is spread out so not everything can be deleted at once. Or it could be the prosecutor’s office itself. Nothing can be done against them even if I had a secure server. The prosecutor can come and collect my PC anytime; then they will see what I have put in. So nothing helps. The Islamists have freedom of expression — we do not. There is nowhere to complain, certainly not without a lawyer. We live in Eurabia! I would like to just communicate in pictures and parables.
I don’t understand. Why not use an American service like WordPress or Blogspot?
This is quite worrying. I did not imagine it was that bad.
There was a good counter-jihad blog in Switzerland, published in French by Alain-Jean Mairet :
http://www.ajm.ch/wordpress/
He stopped updating it in 2008. However, it is still online. There is a contact page. Maybe this blogger cold get in touch with him in order to exchange points of view and practical tips (assuming he has not done so already).
Alain-Jean Mairet not only blogged about Islam, he also tried to be an activist. He imagined an interesting plan to try and ban Islam through the court system, in order to raise political awareness of the problem ; you can read about it under the “Précaution” menu. That was before the minaret vote, which served a similar purpose.
I’d be very interested to read about further developments in Switzerland.
OMG I didn’t know it was this bad! Shows you how CRUCIAL freedom of expression is and how it must be defended here in the States!
Racial laws were created to protect people from persecution over something they cannot change – their skin color.
Islam is not racial. It can be changed. Therefore it should not be protected under race laws of any sort.
That being said, over at Politically Incorrect is an article about a blond girl that was attacked for her blond hair. Is it being tried as a racial incident?
Using a free service such as Blogspot or WordPress.com, even on American soil, still leaves the possibility of someone in Switzerland or elsewhere flagging the content or complaining about it. Some jihadi appears to have a particular vendetta against this blogger.
I can help with this. Baron Bodissey and Dymphna, please check your email inbox.
This is chilling. I will most definitely keep following the development in Switzerland.