The shape of things to come. As Robert Spencer reports, Oriana Fallaci, the Italian journalist forced to live in hiding because of her denunciation of Islam in her book The Rage and the Pride, is now to be put on trial for defaming Islam:

‘The complaint comes from Adel Smith, president of the Muslim Union of Italy, who was never charged with defaming Christianity after he referred to a crucifix as a “miniature cadaver” during his 2003 efforts to have depictions of Christ on the Cross removed from Italian schools… His new suit against Fallaci is hardly less frivolous, but Smith was able to find a judge willing to play along. Judge Armando Grasso of the Italian city of Bergamo ruled in a preliminary hearing that Fallaci’s latest book, La Forza della Ragione (The Force of Reason), contained eighteen statements “unequivocally offensive to Islam and Muslims,” and that therefore she must be tried. He was working from a list compiled by Smith, who complained that Fallaci has “propagated hate against Islam and Muslims, distorting real historical facts and inventing others, lying, offending, and defaming Muslims around the world.” Smith exulted at Grasso’s decision: “It is the first time a judge has ordered a trial for defamation of the Islamic faith. But this isn’t just about defamation. We would also like (the court) to recognize that this is an incitement to religious hatred.” Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli was unhappy with Grasso’s decision. “In Europe,” he declared, “we are seeing the birth of a movement that is looking to silence those who don’t follow a single mindset, within which it is forbidden to speak ill of Islam….In Fallaci’s book there is very strong criticism but not defamation.” '

As I wrote in the Daily Mail yesterday (see Articles), the British government has launched its third attempt to bring in a law against incitement to religious hatred, which is intended to have exactly the same effect — to silence necessary criticism of Islam. Instead of being a society whose traditions enable it to expose and fight clerical fascism, the British state will thus become the tool of clerical fascism — where even to pronounce the tem invites a jail sentence. Europe has already caved in. Everything now depends on whether a few brave and far-sighted parliamentarians can halt this British slide into tyranny in its tracks.