Belgian court upholds suppression of free speech

A group opposed to the Islamization of Europe has had their 11 September demonstration quashed by the Belgian government. The group, known as Stop the Islamization of Europe (SIOE) had been advised earlier this month that their demonstration would be banned, and an appeals court this week upheld the ban.

An appeals court has upheld the ban of an anti-Islam protest planned for 11 September in Belgium's capital, six years after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

The organisers - an alliance of Europeans opposed to the ''Islamisation'' of Europe - failed to prove the ban causes them ''irreparable damage,'' the Council of State, an administrative appeals court, ruled late Wednesday.

Brussels Mayor Freddy Thielemans banned the demonstration on 9 August fearing it would disturb public order and calling the Stop Islamisation of Europe alliance an inflammatory group.

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Since 2001, Thielemans has approved more than 3,500 demonstrations in the Belgian capital and banned six, including the one of SIOE which calls itself 'an alliance of people across Europe with the single aim of preventing Islam becoming a dominant political force in Europe.'

And that's where the pressure has to be applied...not on Islam the religion, but on Islamism, the political-military movement.