I wonder if National Review and the conservative commentariat will get in an absolute tizzy over this too. Somehow, I doubt it:
Right-wing British historian David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison Monday after admitting to an Austrian court that he denied the Holocaust….
The court convicted Irving after his guilty plea under the 1992 law, which applies to “whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media.”
So, is it okay to deny Stalin’s starvation of the Ukraine in Austria? Maybe they’d like to dig up Walter Duranty and put him on trial too. What if one denies Santa Claus, is that equally punishable by ten years in prison? And surely denying Hitler’s Holocaust can’t be as bad as denying the existence of the Devil; how can one of his henchmen possibly outrank the Prime Evil his own bad self?
This demonstrates what I mentioned in last week’s column, that Muslims really do have a genuine legal case for prosecuting the publishers of the notorious Danish cartoons in many European countries, the only question is whether Islam is a recognized religion in the country and if the cartoons are genuinely offensive.
UPDATE: Well, at least they mentioned it. “DAVID IRVING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] is headed to jail in Austria for Holocaust denial.” We await the outrage and the cover story….