Pardon me if I don't shed any tears for Oriana Fallaci. Having been almost destroyed in the last century by an ideology of racist, anti-Semitic fear-mongering, it is understandable for European governments to have laws on their books that attempt to stop another Hitler from coming to power. In Italy, laws condemning the use of false or slanderous attacks on religions, and the people who follow religions, are clearly designed to prevent something like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or, in Fallaci's case, her latest screed comparing Muslims to rats, from being used to justify death camps, the way they were sixty years ago. That this prosecution is being brought by an independent judiciary, in defiance of the Italian government (in which the modern-day Fascist Party plays a key role in the ruling coalition), and has been denounced by the Minister of Justice, Roberto Castelli, is an example of the robust exercise of freedom, not of a return to fascism, as some bloggers have claimed.

Americans who view this prosecution as an affront to civil liberties should note that libel and defamation laws have been on the books for centuries, both in this country and elsewhere. The doctrine of slander per se, which holds that there are certain statement that are assumed to be defamatory, exists in our own tort laws, and is not inconsistent with the First Amendment. Although I hope we never criminalize slander and defamation in the U.S., it would have less effect on our liberties if we did than most of the Patriot Act has had. And I will certainly not weep if the Robert Faurisson's and Oriana Fallaci's of the world have to spend time justifying their hate in a courtroom.

Castelli, by the way, perhaps let the cat out of the bag in defending Fallaci, telling a radio interviewer that "In Europe we are seeing the birth of a movement that is looking to silence those who don't follow a single mindset, within which it is forbidden to speak ill of Islam, of homosexuals or of the children of homosexuals." Good to know that....