Regular readers will remember the saga of Submission, the movie attacking Islamic violence against women. Its director, Theo van Gogh, was murdered by a Muslim fanatic outraged by van Gogh’s opinions. Van Gogh’s collaborator, the Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, remains in hiding.

An Italian Member of the EU’s ‘parliament’ (he’s from the Northern League, a populist party that is (or is not; I’ve lost track) in coalition with Berlusconi (who is, or is not, Italy’s prime minister; I’ve lost track) has been trying to get Submission shown at that parliament. For reasons that are unclear to me (copyright, perhaps?), the owner of the rights to the film objected, but the MEP persisted.

Then another part of the parliament’s apparat, an Ulster Unionist MEP by the name of Nicholson, intervened to stop the film being shown citing the producer’s objections and, well, this:

“The controversial nature of the film is apt to provoke disturbances of the public order within the Parliament and might even put the essential long-term EP security interests at stake”.

Good grief, this ‘parliament’ is so craven that if it had been the Reichstag in 1933 it would have burned itself down.

Elaib of the excellent ‘England Expects’ blog has more. Check out too what he has to say about AP coverage of this contretemps.