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. Lèse majesté 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 offence, 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 sexual explicit positions with the prime minister. Discrimination 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. Criticism 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