I must point out that the city of Elsinore, in which this odious judgment was handed down, is the same that prompted Marcellus to say (in Hamlet): “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” To add insult to injury, the legendary Holger Danske, the Danish hero who will awaken to save his country in its time of greatest need, sleeps in the cellars of Kronborg Castle at Elsinore. Surely at least one of Holger’s eyes is now blinking open …?

Many thanks to Liberty DK for translating this article from Jyllands-Posten. A slightly different version was published earlier at Vlad Tepes:

Man fined for racism following comment on Facebook The court in Elsinore has sentenced a man fined for comparing Islam with Nazism. By JOHANNES KAAS FALLESEN, Jyllands-Posten “…The ideology of Islam is every bit as loathsome, nauseating, oppressive and dehumanizing as Nazism. The massive immigration of Islamists into Denmark is the most devastating event Danish society has suffered in recent historical times.” Thursday morning these words cost Flemming Nielsen 1,600 kroner. He was sentenced to four day-fines of 400 kroner for violating the Penal Code §266b paragraph 1, also called the racism paragraph. This is from a judgment rendered by a Court in Elsinore. The accused, Flemming Nielsen, had written the words on Facebook in late November 2013.

“I did not violate the article I have been accused of. I did not mention the religion of Islam or Muslims with one word. I referred to Islamists and the ideology of Islam,” said Flemming Nielsen to TV2.dk immediately after the verdict. It would therefore be obvious that Flemming Nielsen should be able to appeal the verdict, which he believes has restricted his freedom of expression, to a higher court. However, he will not be able to do this as the fine falls below the minimum limit by which such judgments can be appealed.

Flemming Nielsen wrote the words as a comment on a post that one of his friends had posted on social media regarding a residents’ association where the board had been overthrown by members of the extremist Muslim association Hizb ut-Tahrir. The Elsinore Court claimed in its judgment that Flemming Nielsen had written in general about all Muslims, not Islamists in the narrower sense, as the convicted claimed. ‘The Court has in this context interpreted the “ideology of Islam” as relating to Islam in general and not only to the extreme part of Islam. But it is a dangerous expansion of the racism paragraph the Court of Elsinore potentially has made, says Jacob Mchangama, director of the legal think tank Justitia. “Thus, the Court in Elsinore has taken a major step towards expanding the racism paragraph to constitute a kind of blasphemy clause which indirectly protects religions from insult. We have otherwise rejected this in this country, given that no one has been convicted of blasphemy since 1946,” writes Mchangama in his blog in Berlingske’s website.

It’s worth noting that fighting the “Islam is not a race” battle is pretty much futile at this point. A number of years ago (I don’t remember the date, it might have been 2009) the UN approved an expanded definition of “racism” promoted by the OIC. If anyone “incites hatred”, “discriminates”, or otherwise does bad things towards “a religion”, it is the same as if he had done it towards a race. Even if the Danish court didn’t cite the UN, the new definition of “racism” is lurking there in the background.