Slippery Slope

For some time now, it have been a crime to deny the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II in a number of European countries, including Germany, Austria and France.

Since I don't have any doubts in the truth of the official version of the Nazi Holocaust , these laws aren't anything which is a direct problem for me, but I still regard it as an indirect interest for me to oppose them, because they violate the principle of free speech. Once that principle is undermined we enter a slippery slopw where beliefs that I share might get supressed some day too.

The reality of the slippery slope can be seen in how these laws are now used to justify a new law in France to ban denial of the Turkish mass murder of Armenians during World War I. While I have no interest in that issue either, it illustrates how one violation of the principle leads to another.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn attacks the law, pointing out that "it may mean that people could end up in prison in an EU member state for expressing their views.".

But to this French politicians countered that they already do it to deniers of the Nazi Holocaust, so why not do it with the Ottoman Turkish Holocaust too?