Can we still speak freely?

Byline: Barry Gibson

IBET Sir Salman Rushdie enjoyed Valentine's Day this year - and not just because he probably spent it with the latest in a line of women several inches taller and a few decades younger than himself.

No, the novelist probably celebrated February 14 this year as it marks the 20th anniversary of the death threat issued against him for his book, Satanic Verses.

You may recall that way back in 1989 then Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the author killed because the old man found his novel blasphemous.

The Ayatollah himself lived only a few more months. But two decades on, Sir Salman is still very much with us and still writing.

To anyone who believes in free speech that simple fact is very heartening.

Of course, one of the main reasons Sir Salman has not been murdered is because the British Government has protected him.

Dedicated work by dozens of unknown Special Branch officers has ensured the late Iranian leader's threat has not been carried out.

But I have to ask, if such a thing were to happen today, would the Government be prepared again to defend freedom of speech?

I ask this question because of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's refusal to allow a rather unpleasant Dutchman into the country last week.

Far-right MP Geert Wilders planned to travel to the House of Lords on Thursday to attend a screening of his controversial film, Fitna, which links terrorist attacks such as the London bombings with verses from the Koran.

However, he was turned back at Heathrow after the Home Secretary ruled that his presence in England would threaten public security.

Which, of course, raises the question, from where does the threat come - from Mr Wilders or from those who oppose him?

I've just watched his short film on YouTube.

It's a piece of powerful propaganda which mixes up the Koran, terrorism and the level of Muslim immigration to Holland.

The film is not especially subtle - at no point does it hint that perhaps not every one of the nearly one million Muslims in Holland supports terrorism.

But the point here is not that Mr Wilders' world view is laughably simplistic. It doesn't matter what any of us think of the Dutch MP's opinions - what matters is that we support his right to express them.

Freedom of speech belongs to the idiot as much as to the reasonable.

The crucial point is that while Fitna provides no real insight, neither does it incite. It's not a film which calls for violence against Muslims.

So, who then would threaten public security if Mr Wilders had been allowed to visit the House of Lords?

Perhaps the Home Secretary could tell us because it seems to me that the Government has caved in at the first sign of pressure and deported a man whose only crime has been to robustly criticise a holy book. It's a sad day when the British state - which has strived for so long to protect Sir Salman Rushdie from hate-filled bigots - denies another person the right to come to London and criticise a religion.

CAPTION(S):

FREEDOM?: Salman Rushdie is pictured with Padma Lakshmi (above) when he received his knighthood in 2007 and (right) right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders arrives at Heathrow Airport, London, last week