Norway used to be what could be called ‘a free country’. People could say what they wanted and do what they wanted with their own property. Norway even abolished the long standing blasphemy law that had protected the Christian churches in the country from criticism or mockery.

Nowadays, sadly, Norway is not a country that could be called free by any stretch of the imagination. Norwegians can no longer say what they want nor can they dispose of their own property in the manner that they choose. The reason for this removal of freedoms is the same reason why Britons, French and Germans have also lost many of their freedoms, especially freedom of expression. That reason is Islam and those non Musilm politicians and administrators who choose to pander to this dangerous and violent ideology.

According to an article published by the Gatestone Institute, thirty police were deployed in order to prevent the Stop the Islamisation of Norway group from burning a Koran in protest against the problems that Islam has brought to Norway. I have little doubt that a similar over the top police reaction would not be used if a protestor had chosen to burn a Bible or a Bhagavad Gita or a copy of the Talmud. It is nearly always when a Koran is burned or mocked that the police in the West go full Dhimmi and intervene in the manner that they did recently in Norway.

The Gatestone Institute said:

On November 16, at a protest in a public square in Kristiansand, a group called Stopp Islamisering av Norge (“Stop the Islamization of Norway” – SIAN) set fire to a copy of the Koran in a garbage can. At least thirty police officers were present, and put out the fire within a few seconds. After the incident, Benedicte Bjørnland, director of the national police, told the media that representatives of her department had been in contact with SIAN before the gathering and had warned that if SIAN tried to burn a Koran, they would stop it. Their argument was that such an action could be seen as violating “clause 185.”

What is “clause 185”? Known informally as the “racism clause,” it prescribes up to three years behind bars for saying something “discriminatory or hateful,” or displaying a symbol of hate or discrimination. Clause 185 punishes threats, harassment, or encouraging contempt of others on the basis of skin color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. A campaign is currently underway to eliminate the clause because it violates freedom of expression and because its language is so vague and subjective. But despite the widespread opposition to this sweeping piece of legislation, Norway’s director of police, Benedicte Bjørnland, has now stated, in response to the Kristiansand incident, that in addition to everything else it forbids, it also prohibits “the desecration of religious symbols.” Or, as commentator Nina Hjerpset-Østlie put it, it is now illegal “to burn your own books.” Which, she added means that although Norway’s longstanding blasphemy law was taken off the books four years ago, Bjørnland has, in effect, reinstated it.

Yet again we see laws that were brought in ostensibly to protect those with immutable characteristics like race or gender from assault, being used as defacto ‘blasphemy’ laws to protect Islam. This case is yet more evidence, as if any more were needed, that shows just how damaging these laws are to freedoms that were hard won for us by previous generations. Free speech took generations to achieve but we may be seeing it destroyed in less than one generation by whining Muslims and those politicians who are all too willing to appease them.