What a sad and telling contrast; in Iraq, ordinary citizens who lived under the dictator’s boot for decades defied radical Islamic terrorist violence to vote in Iraq’s first real election.

In the Netherlands, the Rotterdam Film Festival canceled murdered director Theo Van Gogh’s film Submission, in abject fear of the Islamic terrorists who killed him: Festival withdraws film by van Gogh.

ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS — Citing security concerns, organizers of the Rotterdam Film Festival called off Sunday’s screening of a film by slain Dutch moviemaker Theo van Gogh that has outraged some Muslims.

A suspected Islamic extremist allegedly shot and stabbed van Gogh in November after the release of the film, “Submission,” which criticizes treatment of women under Islam.

Sunday’s decision drew criticism from some directors and artists at the festival, who argued that limiting free expression was giving in to terrorists.