On July 20, 2017, The European Court of Human Rights ruled [3] in Belkacem v. Belgium (only available in French) that hate speech by the leader of a radical Salafist organization was not protected speech under the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the press release [4], the “case concerned the conviction of Mr Belkacem, the leader and spokesperson of the organisation ‘Sharia4Belgium’, which was dissolved in 2012, for incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence on account of remarks he made in YouTube videos concerning non-Muslim groups and Sharia.” The Court noted that the speech at issue had hateful content and was aimed at stirring up discrimination and violence towards non-Muslims, and “observed that it had previously ruled that defending Sharia while calling for violence to establish it could be regarded as ‘hate speech’, and that each Contracting State was entitled to oppose political movements based on religious fundamentalism.” Consequently the Court unanimously declared the application inadmissible and found that “it was incompatible with the provisions of the Convention and that Mr Belkacem had attempted to deflect Article 10 of the Convention from its real purpose by using his right to freedom of expression for ends which were manifestly contrary to the spirit of the Convention.”