Gregorius Nekschot

Gregorius Nekschot is the pseudonym of a controversial Dutch cartoonist who mocks political ideas about Dutch multicultural society and the behaviour of people with rigid religious or ideological views. Islam is frequently subject of his cartoons. Gregorius Nekschot publishes his cartoons and satire mostly on his own website. His cartoons are also available in print from one publisher. On May 13, 2008, the cartoonist was arrested and taken into custody for interrogation. He was released after 30 hours, but it was expected that he would be prosecuted for discriminatory speech, insulting certain groups in society on the basis of their race or beliefs and possibly also for the crime of inciting hatred. His arrest has caused much debate in the press and parliament in what has been coined The Affair by Trouw newspaper on May 24, 2008. Charges against him were eventually dropped in September 2010. In December 2011 he announced he would no longer publish cartoons.

In an interview the cartoonist has given an explanation for his sombre name. With "Gregorius" he refers to Pope Gregory IX, who instituted the Papal Inquisition, and "Nekschot" means literally "shot in the neck," a method used, according to the cartoonist, by "fascists and communists to get rid of their opponents."

Gregorius Nekschot was an associate of filmmaker Theo van Gogh who was murdered in 2004 by a young, homegrown, Muslim fundamentalist by the name of Mohammed Bouyeri. Van Gogh supported Nekschot by including his cartoons on his website De Gezonde Roker (The Healthy Smoker). Both Van Gogh and Gregorius Nekschot criticized Islam's perceived unwillingness to adopt the Dutch value of tolerance. They defended their right to criticise, provoke and speak freely. Nekschot's two comic books Misselijke grappen (Sick jokes) are published by Uitgeverij Xtra in Amsterdam. The same company publishes Theo van Gogh's Allah weet het beter (Allah knows best).

Following the murder of Theo van Gogh a debate arose in the Netherlands about the limits of freedom of speech. This debate became alive again with the Danish cartoon affair and the making of the controversial film Fitna in 2008 by Dutch MP Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom (PVV). Justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party wished to revitalize a law on blasphemy and expand it with protecting non religious philosophies of life. Since writer Gerard Reve was acquitted in 1966 for writing about intercourse with God as a donkey, the government had no longer prosecuted blasphemy. Minister Ballin met with opposition in parliament however, which wanted to completely abolish laws on blasphemy.

Another law which might affect cartoons by Gregorius Nekschot is that of 'Lèse Majesté.' The cartoonist has indeed drawn the majesty of Queen Beatrix in compromising positions. The last time that such an offense, in an artistic expression, was prosecuted, was in 1969, when the majesty of Queen Juliana was insulted by cartoonist Willem Holtrop, who presented her as a red light district prostitute, and was fined 200 guilders. However, the cartoons for which Nekschot was investigated did not include those of the queen in sexually explicit positions with the prime minister.

Never have artists been prosecuted for discriminatory speech. Discriminatory speech was first brought within the penal code in the years preceding World War II. The present wording of the code follows a 1966 treaty to banish all forms of racial discrimination. In 1996 however, a Christian MP, and a few years later, a Muslim imam were prosecuted for derogatory comments about homosexuals. Both were acquitted, the judge giving priority to their freedom of religion. In a weekend special of Trouw newspaper on May 24, 2008, about the Nekschot 'affair' author Nahed Selim of Allah houdt niet van vrouwen (Allah doesn't like women, 2007) argues that discrimination laws have turned out to be discriminatory themselves, allowing only religious people to speak freely. She cites a case of a mosque in Amsterdam selling ancient books with paragraphs about homosexuals and of an imam in The Hague giving instructions for light corporal punishment of women, both of which were not prosecuted. She observes this to be a reversal of the intention of freedom of religion: to protect people from discrimination, not to provide a safe haven for it. Selim concludes that equality before the law in a rechtsstaat then demands abolishing the laws on discriminatory speech.

Nekschot has met with strong resistance from elements in society he seeks to criticize. His early work appeared in the satirical Amsterdam student magazine Propria Cures. The mainstream newspapers were unwilling to publish his cartoons on a regular basis, with the exception of weekly magazine HP/De Tijd. Nekschot says he has been threatened by fundamentalist Muslims and Dutch anarchists. Dutch Jews, perceiving parallels with cartoons in Nazi publication Der Stürmer, and a member of parliament for the CDA party emailed him with strong objections to his cartoons. After his release Nekschot said he had never before received objections from authorities. Only a local initiative against discrimination of Muslims, supported by a city district of Amsterdam, once summoned him to remove cartoons from his website. However, he deliberately seeks to criticize Islam because of the 'apartheid' it advocates between men and women, Muslims and non Muslims and because he considers circumcision of children a crime. The cartoonist was nominated for a Clickies, a Dutch web comic award in 2005. A review of his Misselijke grappen in de Volkskrant newspaper of March 31, 2006 considered his (quoting the artist himself) 'needlessly offensive' work was not mirrored by any form of idealism. The reviewer did not discuss who is to judge the need or cause to offend. Having no such judge, may in itself be an ideal. When asked where he himself believed freedom of speech should stop, Nekschot replied that a cartoon should never call for violence. According to the same release, the home of the cartoonist was traced by establishing who paid the monthly fees for the website and a search of the premises was necessary to confirm the identity of the cartoonist. After his release, Nekschot arrived at the editorial board of HP/De Tijd magazine with a new mobile phone, his previous one apparently confiscated by the police. In an interview with newspaper de Volkskrant, he commented that it was the first time in 800 years of satire history in the Netherlands that an artist was put in jail. Expanding on his arrest Nekschot said that police took much material like DVDs from his home. They also confiscated sketchbooks with never published drafts for his cartoons. He suspects that they were hoping to find material which would tie him to right wing extremist views. Nekschot says that he remained silent during interrogation, but nerves and laughter once broke his silence when police were reading him in official jargon a description of one of his cartoons. 'It felt like being in a Monty Python'. He also added that two uniformed police officers had stood guard in front of Nekschot's house.

Gregorius Nekschot's arrest was preceded by several reports to the police of discrimination, the first of which was made in April 2005. Many said the reports were made at the initiative of a controversial Dutch convert to Islam, but no source was given. The office of the public prosecutor alleged that after reviewing dozens of cartoons by Gregorius Nekschot, it considered that eight cartoons, by attributing negative qualities to certain groups of people, are insulting and constituted the crime of discrimination according to article 137c and possibly also the crime of inciting hate according to article 137d of the Dutch Penal Code.

In several reports the cartoonist's fear of losing his anonymity and becoming a target of physical attack have been mentioned. The editors of HP/De Tijd have reported that the cartoonist experienced that one police officer made fun of him losing his anonymity because of his arrest. In parliament, the evening before, the justice minister Hirsch Ballin had denied a similar suggestion by MP De Wit for the SP. Hirsch Ballin specified his own involvement with the arrest of Nekschot as follows. The prosecutor's office had been intensely and meticulously busy with the cartoons and had been in contact with the minister on several occasions. The prosecutor himself had done a very careful assessment, in which the LECD was of the utmost importance, but had by himself concluded for which cartoons he was going to prosecute. In December 2006 the prosecutor had informed the minister about his intention to press charges against Gregorius Nekschot. In this communication the prosecutor specified which cartoons he deemed liable to prosecution and which cartoons not. There followed, said the minister, more conversations, deliberations and further particulars. In the meantime an 'interdepartmental study group cartoon problems' (interdepartementale studiegroep cartoonproblematiek) had been established to anticipate situations as in Denmark. Never had the minister given the prosecutor an order to stop or continue prosecution. He had only reviewed the consistency of the prosecution: for which cartoons to prosecute and for which ones not. There followed, once more, deliberations. Those contacts were continued, also within the study group. All this time the identity of Gregorius Nekschot was not investigated. Until the beginning of 2008 it was thought he was in fact two people. All charges against Nekschot in the case were eventually dropped in September 2010. Hughs said Dutch authorities failed to take action about Muslim complaints. In a news release on their website MDI said it would take a special interest in monitoring developments in the case. A surge of 80 reports about cartoons and text on the website of the cartoonist at the beginning of 2005 was passed on by them to the public prosecutor. It was denied that they had filed a complaint in the name of Dutch convert Van de Ven, as was reported by others. The timing of the surge of complaints follows shortly the murder of Theo van Gogh in November 2004, perhaps providing a foundation for suggestions by Opheffer and Sylvain Ephimenco in Trouw (see press reactions) that prosecution of Van Gogh smells of a posthumous reckoning with the murdered filmmaker. MDI is founder of international internet hate crime fighter INACH. INACH believes the Netherlands, 'once a liberal democracy where the rights of all were protected', should balance the fight against terrorism by enforcing and expanding anti discrimination laws. INACH says that some members of parliament have the wrong priorities if they are worried more by infringement of free speech than protecting its citizens against a cartoonist 'who hates blacks and Muslims.' Niels van Tameren, the present day director of MDI would like the judge to decide whether this is a case of 'free speech or racism'.

The office of the public prosecutor has seen to the removal of the eight allegedly discriminatory cartoons from the internet. All mainstream newspapers raised questions about at least the way the prosecutor handled the arrest and expressed doubts about the prosecutor's chances of winning a conviction. Only the small, but influential with the government's Christian parties, Trouw newspaper has been somewhat supportive of the prosecution itself, stating in its chief editorial that only a judge can decide whether the cartoons constitute a crime. In an editorial, the newspaper most closely associated with the government PvdA party, de Volkskrant, immediately condemned the decision to police satire or other 'cultural candy'. Many cartoonists of newspapers made drawings in support of Gregorius Nekschot. The nation's largest newspaper De Telegraaf on its front page on May 22, 2008, focused its readers attention on a colourful painting of two rather abstract female nudes by artist Ellen Vroegh that the municipality of Huizen removed from public space at city hall at the request of a Muslim gentlemen. A sideshow. Other sideshows turned up bearing witness to tension within the social democratic PvdA party which accommodates both traditional socialists and immigrants. In de Volkskrant (May 22, 2008) two University Law School professors advised the justice minister not to interfere with the case to conserve the prosecutors neutrality. MP Fred Teeven for the VVD, a former prosecutor, however denied the prosecutor's neutrality and declared it a political case. Paul de Beer, a labor relations professor at the University of Amsterdam, in the same de Volkskrant shared his concern that the freedom of the press was not in safe hands with the governments Christian CDA party. He cited several other muzzlings of the press, most importantly the prime ministers continued legal action against weekly Opinio, which had published a fictional speech by the prime minister challenging his official position on Islam.

Syp Wynia in Elsevier magazine argued that events pointed to a sudden and conspicuous change of policy within the prosecutor's office, and by its highest authority: the justice minister. Also he expressed surprise that cartoons insulting Christians did not receive police attention. In an emergency debate in parliament on May 20, 2008, Hirsch Ballin expressed his support for the prosecutor but criticized the lengthy detention of the cartoonist. A majority within parliament, including the parties supporting the government, considered the manner in which the arrest was made 'disproportionate'. The minister denied accusations made by members of the opposition that the arrest was politically motivated. The decision to prosecute was made by the prosecutor and not as the result of government policy, said the minister. The minister confirmed, however, that he had been in contact with the office of the prosecutor at whose initiative the investigation was started. On May 21, 2008, the popular and largest Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf headed an article about parliament's condemnation of the arrest with a quote of a right wing member of parliament comparing it to practices in former East Germany. De Volkskrant, the same morning, mentioned near disbelief within the left wing GroenLinks party that the prosecutor's office had needed three years to establish the identity of Nekschot. MP De Wit from the socialist SP party suggested that the justice minister was seeking retribution for parliament's recent opposition to new legislation on profanity. De minister denied any relation.

In cartoons and satire that was published on his website one month before his arrest Gregorius Nekschot directed his creativity at the justice minister, the prime minister and the government chief terrorism official. Writing with another pseudonym, as Dolf Histler, he accused the justice minister of not being able to achieve much in the field of crime fighting and the cabinet of Christians and social democrats of prime minister Balkenende of religious mania. In a cartoon a naked prime minister is being depicted as 'in touch' with the darker side of public opinion through his 'mighty organ', being the government chief terrorism official as a tapeworm awaiting orders. In another cartoon, once more the prime minister is drawn as praying five times a week in front of a circumcised penis or lingam while wearing a fake beard and a djellaba.