Courage In The Face Of Adversity

Yesterday, Charles over at Little Green Footballs focused attention on the mayor of Brussels, Belgium, who has cancelled a 9/11 memorial march because You Know Who might be offended.

From Flanders News:

It is feared that conflict would arise between the protesters and members of the capital's large Muslim community if the planned demonstration were allowed to go ahead.

Mr Thielemans told journalists that "there could be a counter-demonstration. I'm not prepared to allow something to take place that could bring chaos to the streets".

Mr Thielemans says that he receives between five and six hundred requests for demonstrations each year and has only banned about half a dozen demonstrations since becoming Mayor at the beginning of 2001.

The organisers claim that Mr Thielemans' reasons for banning the demonstration prove their point.

They add that the demonstration will be held and that Mr Thielemans "is not fully aware of his responsibility, for as a mayor at EU's capital you cannot simply forbid ordinary European citizens from expressing their constitutional freedoms."

Three organisations are behind the planned demonstration; the Danish anti-Islam party SAID, the British group No Sharia Here and the German organisation Pax Europa.

Stop the Islamisation of Europe announced on Friday afternoon that it is [to] mount a legal challenge to get the ban lifted.

In response to this nitwittery, Stop the Islamisation of Europe, proponents of the march, has also launched an online petition drive.

Someone was even so kind as to provide the email addys of the governor of Brussels, Mme. Veronique Paulus de Chalet and the mayor of Brussels, M. Freddy Thielemans.

I wonder if Mayor Numbnuts would have the courage of his convictions to ban a march that would feature slogans such as, Jews Out Of Palestine, What Holocaust?, Death To Israel And The Great Satan, Ahmadinejad Is Right, or Submit Or Die?

For some reason, I doubt it.

Wouldn't want to offend anybody, you know.