Do remember that I have no percentage in your opinion – whatever actions and opinions you and other readers hold have (fortunately) no bearing at all for me. My sole motivation to bringing this subject up with you was to broaden the scope of discussion a bit – I certainly have no desire to live in a religious fundamentalist society of any creed, and I would heartily prefer to have effective, legal action taken against people who practice hate speech and incite their followers to violence to having doomsayers further fanning the flames.

But by all means do carry on – that horse ain't going nowhere

Let me see if I understand what happened.

You're alleging that people mistook you for a Muslim and told you you were not welcome in their places of business. When you protested, they accused you of lying about your claimed nationality and origins. Geert Wilders' name came up in the conversations; further, the nature of the conversation changed when you asserted yourself and used some "diplomacy".

You were not threatened with violence, contrary to your first narration, in which you said you were threatened with violence.

Someone insulted your mother. You did not go to the police and file a harassment complaint.

You believe that Geert Wilders should be put into prison because people were rude to you.

No. You're wrong and so is the Dutch government..

JW

If a country's politicians are the first to break that very country's laws, then I fear the situation will only degenerate.

Both the Netherlands and the US have fairly excellent documents as a constitution – they differ in approach but are similar in spirit – it's the very freedoms enshrined in them that can oppose radicalism and unbridled hatred – yet those who would oppose them must themselves be beyond reproach.

Even if the Dutch government was to try and curb muslim extremism under hate speech laws, they would be hampered by such a blatant example of it going unprosecuted.

The circumstances of those incidents were all fairly pedestrian: Twice going into neighborhood pubs, once once in a butcher's shop (where, ironically, I was purchasing pork).

How I am sure they were Wilders supporters is simple, in the ensuing argument "Gert zei" was a recurring theme: "Gert said <whatever argument>". Upon hearing I of my nationality the reaction was… disbelief, basically, accusations of lying, progressive falling off of arguments to muttering – basically behaving like an unruly child caught.

As for the nature of the insults and threats – of the coarsest and least imaginative variety (e.g. the virtue and occupation of my mother are not open to impeachment by strangers).

I did not go to the police since no actual violence was done – I managed to defuse those situations before they escalated, but I did have to practice some diplomacy and assertiveness to prevent 'mob mentality' to take over.

I do believe that a successful prosecution of Mr. Wilders will create the precedent from which people practicing hate speech from *both* sides of the of these issues can be brought to trial. Once that happens, people crying "religious (or ethnic) discrimination" will not have a foot to stand on.

Best regards,

Manny