We reported last week and earlier this week about the recent incident at the University of Antwerp in which Benno Barnard was unable to give a lecture on Islam and Christianity because it offended Muslims. The Offended Ones, coordinating their efforts via SMS, packed the hall and shut the lecture down with their loud chanting and intimidation.Dr. Barnard will make another attempt to give his lecture, and the city of Antwerp has asked for and obtained the legal authority to enforce civil penalties against anyone who disturbs the occasion or intimidates the speaker.
According to the Belgian news site 7sur7 (my translation):
Penalty of €25,000 for anyone who disrupts Benno Barnard- - - - - - - - -
Those who disrupt the upcoming lecture by Benno Barnard at the University of Antwerp will pay a fine of €25,000. This will also apply to anyone who dares to intimidate the writer or his audience. This was the decision of the court of First Instance of Antwerp on Wednesday.
The lecture “Leve God, Allah is weg” [“Long Live God, down with Allah”] that Benno Barnard attempted to give on March 31 at the University of Antwerp could not take place because a group of radical Muslims created chaos in the audience.
Soon a new date will be set for a lecture by the writer. To prevent the same scenario from occurring again, mayor Patrick Janssens and the city of Antwerp filed an application for interim relief from the court.
Their petitions were granted: anyone who disturbs the public order, or intimidates the writer and his audience, must pay a fine of €25,000 per infraction. Troublemakers who refuse to reveal their identity to the police must pay a fine of €2,000 per person.
Hat tip: TV.
13 comments:
Hi Baron.
Actually the correct translation of " “Leve God, Allah is weg” is "Long live God,Allah is gone"
Will.
There's a subtle difference.
No offence intented.
Will.
Will, no offense taken.
I use that translation because it was supplied by a native Dutch speaker, our redoubtable Flemish correspondent VH.
If he got it wrong, we're in trouble! Because 90% of our Dutch translations are done by him.
However, my guess is that this is an idiom, and, like most idioms, is difficult to translate literally.
In fact, "Leve God" itself is an idiom. Like "Vive Dieu" or "Viva Dios", it does not translate literally into "long live God", since it lacks the "long". Rather, (I presume) its literal translation would be something like "Let God live"; i.e. it uses the subjunctive mood.
English simply has a different idiom used for similar purposes.
There are many such idioms, and we have to make best-fit choices of translations for them. I deal with this problem every day when editing translations by people who are not native speakers of English.
Balancing literal meaning against the overall sense of the text can be tricky, and requires a bit of finesse.
Hi Baron.
I think the translator was working fine .The actual newspaper article says" "Leve God, weg met Allah" and this means "Long live God,down with Allah".
Somewhere during the translation it must have been mixed up.
And the meaning changed ,just like hundreds of translation faults got in to our actual Bible as we know it.
Actually Dutch is my native language thus i spotted it .
Have a great week-end!
Will.
Dear Will and Baron: in the Dutch version (as Will also mentions in his second comment) it is not "Allah is weg" (Allah is gone) but "Weg met Allah" (as in the previous translations and in the quoted 7sur7 article: "La conférence "Leve God, weg met Allah") thus: "Lang leve God" [(wishing a long life, or celebrate) Long live God], "weg met Allah" [do away with-, or Down with- Allah].
Another person trying to speak out, in France.
http://galliawatch.blogspot.com/2010/03/zemmours-letter-to-licra.html#links
Ann Coulter trying to speak in Canada...
True North strong not free
MARK STEYN: Strange that the more Canada congratulates itself on its ‘tolerance’ the less it’s prepared to tolerate
Linky
Hi all,
Interesting information about the speech title translation. I appreciate the attention to detail.
I highly doubt that the type of people who would interrupt a speech and intimidate a speaker or audience will care about a fine that they will simply default on paying.
It will be interesting to see if the fine deters further interruption.
Has anyone caught the irony that, if these people are "on the dole," it will be the native taxpayer who funds their fines anyway....
You're right, Egghead.
These dole-bludgers couldn't care less about fines. We are dealing with people who believe it is their religious duty to kill and die for allah, and they sacrifice their own children for that.
Why would a fine deter them?
sheik yer'mami: Why would a fine deter them?
Perhaps if said fine affected their immigration status or if the criminal record of not paying said fine impacted their ability to continue receiving state issued welfare, I'd say it might deter them quite a bit.
Not being an expert on Dutch law, I cannot say if the foregoing is true. Knowing Geert Wilders, I'd wager that, if not already the case, a PVV win might see such measures rapidly put in place.
Getting Islamic Rage Boy to STFU and sit down will go a long way towards inhibiting the usual Muslim shenanigans in Europe. Making it difficult or expensive for them to draw attention to themselves will suck the oxygen out of their tantrum-filled world post haste.
Zenster, Antwerp is in Belgium.
Geert and the PVV are, alas, unable to help.
Baron Bodissey: Antwerp is in Belgium.
Gah, dratted geography strikes again!
Geert and the PVV are, alas, unable to help.
I beg to differ. Geert et al can most definitely lead by example. That said, Belgium's hosting of the EU's parasitic elite certainly diminishes any prospects of competent Dutch leadership having a salutory effect.
I translated "Leve God, weg met Allah" as "Long Live God, Away with Allah."
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Zenster sez:
"Perhaps if said fine affected their immigration status or if the criminal record of not paying said fine impacted their ability to continue receiving state issued welfare, I'd say it might deter them quite a bit."
Current laws don't allow for any of this. The nation states have signed their rights away to the communist EU talk shop in Brussels who pervert every attempt to apply reason or sanity with screams of "Yuman Rites" for the perps.
Wilders would have to get an absolute majority to be able to have any effect at all.
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