All he did was murder filmmaker Theo Van Gogh for making a movie critical of Islam.

The prophet Mohammed justifies Islamic violence in the battle between the faithful and unfaithful. Paradise awaits the faithful who die as a result, Mohammed Bouyeri claimed yesterday in the district court of The Hague.

Bouyeri hoped for paradise himself when he assassinated Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam on 2 November 2004. But after a shoot-out with the police, he was taken alive, and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder with terrorist motives. Yesterday, he made a 2.5-hour plea in the court case against the Hofstad alleged terrorist group, of which he is allegedly the leader.

"When you compare me to Osama Bin Laden, you are seriously wronging him and giving me too much honour that I do not deserve," Bouyeri said to the Public Prosecutor (OM). "But the fact that you see me as the black standard-bearer of Islam in Europe fills me with honour, pride and happiness."

Bouyeri began his plea with a sort of profession of faith in Arabic, which was translated by an interpreter. The 27-year-old Amsterdam-born Moroccan was dressed in a traditional black robe and had tied a scarf around his head. His plea consisted primarily of quotations from books on Islam from the prison library.

And this is the religious faith to which the news media is deferring when they refuse to show the Muhammad cartoons or apologize for showing them? This is the faith defended by politicians when its followers demand blood atonement for blasphemy? DoesnÂ’t the belief in the values of civilization mandate the rejection of such a faith by all reasonable men and women?

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