Posted on 04/17/2010 3:25:41 PM PDT by NYer
The news is just coming in about a ridiculous though widely anticipated judgment from the German court against an outspoken leader in the SSPX movement. I know that denying the Holocaust is illegal in that country, but it shouldn't be.
A German court convicted ultraconservative British Bishop Richard Williamson on Friday of denying the Holocaust in a television interview.
A court in the Bavarian city of Regensburg found Williamson guilty of incitement for saying in a 2008 interview with Swedish television that he did not believe Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II.
The court ordered Williamson to pay a fine of euro10,000 ($13,544).
The Roman Catholic bishop was barred by his order from attending Friday's proceedings or making statements to the media.
His lawyer, Matthias Lossmann, told The Associated Press after the court ruling that Williamson has yet to decide whether he would appeal.
Denying the Holocaust is a criminal offense in Germany.
The court ordered a fine of euro12,000 for Williamson last year, without a trial. But the bishop appealed, forcing his case to be tried publicly.
Lossmann said that Williamson had explicitly asked the Swedish television crew conducting the interview not to broadcast it in Germany.
In issuing her ruling, Judge Karin Frahm said the bishop could not have expected that the clip would show up on YouTube and be seen directly in Germany, and that led her to reduce the fine, court spokesman Bernhard Schneider told the AP.
The journalists who conducted the interview ignored a court order to attend the trial, Lossmann said, leaving the judge to rely on written statements as testimony.
"That does not do a case like this justice," Lossmann said. . . (continue reading)
So what's Israel's position on this Bishop Williamson? That should count for something, no?
Boy, is that the truth.
Seriously? A family member who was behind the wire in Germany during WWII, greatly enjoyed Hogan’s Heroes. I always assumed it was because it made the Germans look so foolish.
He refuses to acknowledge that the Holocaust ever happened. Therefore, the persecution of the Jewish people- men, women, children, infants gassed in box cars is an approval of sorts...by a member of the Catholic Church who also supports Ahmadinejad's theory the Holocaust never happened.
I may not agree with President Obama on just about everything, but I do support his quest for the assassination of the American born Imam, al-Awlak, who's radical teachings helped bring about the terrorist attack at Ft Hood, the underwear bomber - Abdulmutallab, etc.
Their teachings whether Muslim or Catholic, whatever religion one chooses becomes a platform for the rhetoric that inspires to action terror acts against innocents.
SSPX Bishop Williamson skillfully hides his antisemitism under the CAPPA MAGNA knowing intellectually how to support a terrorist act-without openly supporting a terrorist act of the past-under the cover of what we American's call "free speech"..get my drift?
It is an approval, of sorts just skillfully manipulated as in "wink, wink".
Now, THAT is what I call “globalization”!
Sieg Heil, mein Judgette!
I object onna ‘count of you bringin reason and facts into this debate!!! UNFAIR!!!
Freegards, Benny rules
In case you were unaware, there is a reason for Germany’s law against denying the holocaust.
No, that is inaccurate. He questions the magnitude of it, and the use of specifically gas chambers. He does not deny that Jews suffered terribly and unjustly under the Nazi regime. He questions the scope of the Holocaust because he was convinced so by a book of a revisionist historian. He later promised to re-read the book and re-assess his opinion, but I don't know what happened afterwards. The point is, it is just an opinion about the historical evidence that we have. It is not a crime to hold such an opinion.
The reason is not valid. And besides, how is that purported internal to Germany reason supposed to apply to an Englishman living in Argentina and giving an interview to a Swedish TV?
Freedoms are often abused..because "they" can be...
Sounds like using the excuse of his early education like Obama and the Trinity church? Accepting of what one source says is what is wrong with this country..some hear what they want to hear and do not have the caring to go any further to explore further truths. Getting to a position in life like the Bishop is now, just is total ignorance. Enough on this.
Then there is no moral wrong in considering one number more credible than another.
I am tied of those that use a platform of religion to influence those that mean to do us harm.
Williamson shouldn't have used his clerical position to make comments outside of what the Church teaches. Bishops should not be chemists, archeologists or Holocaust scholars, they have a more important job to do. That was what he did wrong. But the focus today is his conviction in Germany. That is absurd in terms of universal justice.
Accepting of what one source says is what is wrong with this country
By criminalizing opinions, the state of Germany has forced everyone -- even, as we learn, non-Germans -- to do just that.
Thanks
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