Every year the authorities in Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of the European Union (EU), receive between 500 and 600 applications for permission to demonstrate or hold protest marches. With very few exceptions permission is always granted. In the past five years only six applications were turned down – an average of one a year.Now Freddy, who apparently has a bit of a hard-on for Catholics is general and the Pope very specifically... has decided to step on free speech.
Last week another request was turned down. Freddy Thielemans, the Mayor of Brussels, prohibited a demonstration against the Islamization of Europe, planned to be held next September 11 in front of the European Parliament buildings.
Well, he may have just stepped on his dick as well.
Up until last week the Belgian press had made no mention of the march. Last Thursday, however, Mayor Thielemans banned the demonstration. A local joke has it that the mayor cannot allow a demonstration on his 63rd birthday (Thielemans was born on Sept. 11, 1944) because he fears that if the pope dies on his birthday it will cost him a fortune to offer “champagne for everyone.”Oh yeah... that Freddy is such a card. At an official function in 2005, upon learning of the death of Pope John Paul II, Funster Freddy apparently ordered "champagne for everyone".
Meanwhile an online petition, which everyone is invited to sign, asks the mayor to reconsider his decision. Thielemans’ ban has turned the anti-Sharia demonstration into a huge publicity stunt, even if only a few people show up. The press will be there and the world will be watching – if not a mass demonstration, Filip Dewinter celebrating his 45th birthday with a bottle of champagne.Sign the online petition.
(via reader Alistair)
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RELATED: Secular no more
This oughta fix up all Turkey's EU issues.
-- ANKARA -- A devout Muslim with a background in political Islam won the Turkish presidency on Tuesday, in a major triumph for the Islamic-rooted government after months of confrontation with the secular establishment.**********
LAST WORD: On the good news front...
France grows a pair...
-- Paris -- Speaking to 180 French ambassadors, Mr Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be "unacceptable" and that the only response was to tighten sanctions while being open to talks if Iran suspended nuclear activities.
"This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran," he said, adding that it was the worst crisis facing the world.
Technorati Tags: Freddy Thielemans, Islamization of Europe, Pope John Paul II