Giving ammunition

Unfortunately, Europe is about to hand the Islamists some ammunition in the cartoon row. Austria just sentenced Holocause denier David Irving (a Brit) to three years in jail for speeches he gave in Austria downplaying the extent of the Final Solution. In defense of the Danish cartoons, we heard that free speech means the right to say stupid, even offensive things. I believe that statement is true, but we can't expect there not to be calls of hypocrisy with this verdict. Mr. Irving may be a fool, perhaps a dangerous fool, but he shouldn't go to jail for his stupidity.

AP - Mon Feb 20, 4:45 AM ET
Right-wing British historian David Irving holds his book 'Hitler's War' when arriving at a court in Vienna, on Monday, Feb. 20, 2006. Irving is accused of denying the Holocaust and is facing up to 10 years in jail. He has been in custody since his arrest in November on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews. (AP Photo/Hans Punz)