| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
The brilliantly insightful and fearless Diana West speaks with the equally fearless hero of free speech and of the defense of the West against Islamic supremacism, Geert Wilders:
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands -- Having run the polite-but-grim gauntlet of Dutch government security to gain access to Geert Wilders, I finally understood what the 24-hour security requirements of the man's continued existence really mean: To make the survival of Western-style liberty in the Netherlands his political cause, this Dutch parliamentarian has to live under high-tech lock and key.This stunning paradox, with no end in sight, illustrates how far political freedom in the West has already eroded. Think of it: For writing about the repressive ideology of Islam, for arguing against the inequities of Sharia (Islamic law), for making a video ("Fitna") to warn about Islamic jihad, Wilders lives in his own non-Islamic country under a specifically Islamic death threat.
If it is politically incorrect to notice this, it is also indisputably true. True, too, is that, sans state security, this death threat could conceivably be carried out anytime, anywhere -- from the picturesque streets outside the Dutch parliament, to the house Wilders hasn't slept in since 2004. That, of course, was when, on an Amsterdam street, a Muslim assassin plunged a knife into Theo van Gogh's corpse, thus attaching the Islamic manifesto threatening both Wilders and his then-parliamentary colleague, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, with death.
Not long ago, political debate in the Netherlands met with, well, more political debate. Now, however, with a growing Muslim minority -- and it's politically incorrect to notice this, too -- political debate sometimes meets with Islam-inspired political assassination. At least it has, traumatically, twice in recent years: once, with the 2002 murder of the anti-Islamic-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn by an animal rights activist who claimed Fortuyn was scapegoating Muslims; and the following year with the ritualistic Islamic murder of Van Gogh, director of "Submission," a short video made with Hirsi Ali about Islamic mistreatment of women. In all, such Islam-inspired violence has been enough to chill Islam-inspired debate.And that's just the situation at home. This week, even as Amsterdam's chief public prosecutor, Leo de Wit, announced that no charges would be brought against Wilders for "discrimination" or "incitement to hatred" related to Wilders' writings or video ("We find Mr. Wilders' remarks were limited to Islam as a religious movement," De Wit said), Jordan announced it is bringing a "Fitna"-related criminal case against the Dutch parliamentarian.
In other words, Jordan will indict a Dutch politician according to Jordanian (read: Islam-inspired) law. "Jordanian authorities are not aiming to arrest" the Dutch leader of the Freedom Party, Radio Netherlands Online reports. "They say the decision to prosecute was taken in order to send a signal to the Netherlands."
A "signal"? How about a gag? Of course, like other Western peoples, the Dutch seem content to censor themselves, happily mouthing multicultural platitudes that effectively rationalize their own culture's Islamization. Not Wilders.
I recently asked the 44-year-old Dutchman what was stronger in his country: Islam or multiculturalism.
"Unfortunately, they are both strong," he replied, seated in his lightly furnished but heavily guarded office. "But cultural relativism is the biggest problem." He went on to explain: "Multicultural society would not be that bad -- I don't really believe in it -- but it would not be that bad if, at least, we would be strong enough to say that our culture is better and dominant. But when you combine multicultural society with a dominant sense of cultural relativism, you are heading in the wrong direction. You are committing suicide when it comes to your own culture."
He continued: "I am not advocating a monocultural society. I just want what the Germans call leitkultur (leading culture). I want our own culture to be dominant -- not the only one, but to be dominant. I have a big problem with the cultural relativists who say every culture is equal. I don't believe every culture is equal."
Hoping to preserve the primacy of Western culture in this Dutch corner of the West, Wilders advocates a halt to Islamic immigration. "I'm not saying that every Muslim in the Netherlands is a criminal or a terrorist," he explains. "We know the majority is not. Still," he continues, "there is good reason to stop the immigration, because the more we have an influx of Muslims in the Netherlands, the strength of the (Islamic) culture will grow, and the change of our societies will increase." He sees his efforts as "a fight against an ideology that I believe at the end of the day will kill our freedom, kill our societies and change everything we stand for."
He's right -- and, yes, it's politically incorrect to say that, too. Everything the West stands for, starting with freedom of speech, is already changing as our institutions, up to and including, for example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, increasingly proscribe critical references, or indeed, any references to Islam. While it's clear that the European manifestation of Islamic ideology has already killed Wilders' personal freedom in the Netherlands, the general impact on freedom throughout the West has yet to be fully appreciated.
"I have a mission," Wilders said. "I believe very strongly in what I say, and my party fortunately shares this view. And nobody in the Netherlands is doing (what I do). And somebody should. And I pay a high price for it."
What is the expression -- freedom isn't free? This is literally and acutely the case when it comes to this heroic and dedicated Dutchman.
Posted by Robert at July 3, 2008 6:33 PM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
In the UK Islamic firebrands are given bail and are free to go about their business as they may be in danger if they are extradited to an Islamic country such as Jordan! Of course he insulted and threatened the West but West does not issue Fatwas or threaten life and limb. Just deluges him with rights and social security benefits!
Human rights only work for those who want to abuse those rights!
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 3, 2008 7:21 PM
I find it interesting that the Dept of Homeland Security has been so PC about Islam, as have many government agencies, but there's a lesson in that: Government bureaucracy is a dolt. The only way to counter the Islamic challenge is by building a broad consensus via a knowing public. This is happening too slowly, but it's happening. And so here we are, at Jihad Watch...keep the midnight oil burning...
Posted by: jewdog at July 3, 2008 7:46 PM
Westerners are like sheep to the slaughter today. We are looking at the world through rose colored glasses.
Posted by: Thor-Zone at July 3, 2008 7:55 PM
We shall not submit; we shall not be muzzled, like sheep led to slaughter. God Is with us.
Posted by: John C at July 3, 2008 8:04 PM
Muslims like to hold people hostage in their own country without having to capture them..sad.
Posted by: pulsar182 at July 3, 2008 8:35 PM
I find it interesting that the Dept of Homeland Security has been so PC about Islam, as have many government agencies, but there's a lesson in that: Government bureaucracy is a dolt.
Posted by: jewdog at July 3, 2008 7:46 PM
Govt. is made of people and Islamists know that. Add to that a corrupt and incompetent
"president/commander-in-chief". Once you have the "most powerful man in the world" dancing to your tunes, how hard is it to make the FBI / State Dept / Dept of Homeland Security dance to the same tunes?
As the saying goes.. "Fish starts rotting in the head".
at July 3, 2008 8:55 PM
An absurd situation.
Jordans actions clearly show that they support Islamic terrorism by openly threatening, muzzling, intimidation, blackmail and by trying to stifle free speech. On the other hand the Brits (along with other EUro-dhimmies) are holding up misguided, unworkable human rights principles for Islamofascist terrorists in their midst who are plotting and planning the destruction of their countries.
The world has gone mad.
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at July 3, 2008 9:08 PM
Is there no other entity but Pay Pal on the Internet or is there some other entity.somewhere.anywhere.everyone??? I want to help Geert....how can we help Geert..checks to whatever? None of us can survive ID theft.
Posted by: nodak at July 3, 2008 9:59 PM
Geert Wilders' plight is so appalling, and it seems few Dutch realize what a brave stand he is taking. If mentioned to most Americans, they would likely respond: "Geert Wilders? Who's she?"
That Wilders' is undertaking "Fitna II" under these circumstances completely awes me--I know of very few people who could be so brave under these dire conditions. Kudos to Diana West for covering Wilders' story.
What of the Netherlands' other brave Cassandra, Ayaan Hirsi Ali? In some ways, her situation is even more precarious than Wilders'. At least, no one is casting aspersions on Wilders' "Dutchness", but that is hardly the case with Hirsi Ali. Instead of embracing this brave woman, who is willing to defend true Western values, the craven MP Rita Verdonk tried to have her stripped of her Dutch citizenship.
Hirsi Ali is in the worst no-win situation--like Wilders, she has been under police protection since the brutal murder of her partner in the creation of "Submission", Theo van Gogh. When she was offered a position at an American think-tank, the Dutch government initially continued her protection. Later, they decided that they could not protect her in a foreign country. Even though the US had been very welcoming to her, this did not extend to providing her with American security. So, ironically, she had to return to the Netherlands, with its large Muslim population, even though that is where she is known, and under direct threat.
The last information I've been able to find indicates that she is now seeking French citizenship, since she has received quite a bit of support from the French. I hope she is successful, and that France appreciates what a treasure she is. The irony is, though, that France has an even larger, and arguably more violent, Muslim population than does the Netherlands. Clearly, she will not be entirely safe there, either.
Here's a link:
http://www.euro-islam.info/spip/article.php3?id_article=2073
I don't know if anyone on JW has more recent information.
What a long, sad list of threat--the fatwa on Salman Rushdie, most Westerners' first experience with Muslim death threats, Pim Fortune, Theo van Gogh, Geert Wilders, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Fleming Rose, Kurt Westergaard and the rest of the Danish Mohammed cartoonists, Lars Viks, Gregorius Nekschot, Chauncy Bailey, Mark Steyn.
I'm sure this list is only partial. We should regard these people as heroes--and yet, in many cases, they are treated like embarrassments, or even persecuted by the very people they are trying to defend.
Cassandras haven't been much appreciated since the days of Troy.
Posted by: gravenimage at July 3, 2008 10:01 PM
GravenImage
don't forget the French high school teacher, Robert Redeker.
For just one little article in 'Le Figaro', September 19, 2006, only 1000 words long, in which every statement made about Islam and Mohammad and the Quran is completely factual, he was showered with Muslim death threats, lost his job, and now lives in hiding.
The article is excellent: brief, witty, lucid and rational in the very best French style. Redeker's description of the banning of what he calls 'le string' is delicious.
"Comment expliquer l’interdiction du string à Paris-Plages, cet été ? Étrange fut l’argument avancé : risque de «troubles à l’ordre public». Cela signifiait-il que des bandes de jeunes frustrés risquaient de devenir violents à l’affichage de la beauté ? Ou bien craignait-on des manifestations islamistes, via des brigades de la vertu, aux abords de Paris-Plages ?"
From the translated version:
"How can one explain the ban on the wearing of thongs on the Paris-Beaches this summer? The reasoning put forth was bizarre: women wearing thongs would risk “disturbing the peace”. Did this mean that bands of frustrated youths would become violent while being offended by displays of beauty? Or were the authorities scared of Islamist demonstrations by virtue squads near Paris-Beaches?"
With unerring instinct, Redeker places side by side the French authorities' imposition of a Muslim-style ban on the wearing of the 'thong' by French bathing beauties - 'for fear of public disorder' {i.e. FITNA}, with their acquiescence in the wearing of the Muslim veil in public places. He can see that both acts - banning 'le string' while permitting women to go about in burqas - disturb *French* public order in that they denote "a more or less conscious submission to the diktats of Islam".
Le Figaro, in a panic due to Muslim threats, attempted to throw Redeker's piece down the memory hole; but alas, many people who liked it had already made copies and disseminated them, with translations, and such were made available at this very site, at the time.
As Geert Wilders represents the spirit of the Netherlands, as Oriana Fallaci represented Italy, as Kurt Westergaard represents Denmark - 'I am an old man with a stiff neck, I don't know how to bow" - so Robert Redeker *is* France.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at July 3, 2008 11:28 PM
"I don't believe every culture is equal." --Geert
Of course that's true. It's obvious, hello.
In fact, NOTHING is "equal" in this world, with the exception of one thing called "The Great Equalizer," i.e. Death.
*
Cassandras haven't been much appreciated since the days of Troy.
Posted by: gravenimage at July 3, 2008 10:01 PM
The curse of Cassandra's is to not be believed. Cassandra's are NEVER appreciated, indeed, they are hated and reviled. Like Enoch Powell. Like all of us on JW - we're the "haters, bigots, racists." Yeah, uh huh, right. My MoonBat brother called sites such as JW and other similar ones "pure hate."
Like I said, he's a Moonbat.
Posted by: darcy at July 4, 2008 12:13 AM
The world has gone mad.
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at July 3, 2008 9:08 PM
shiek, the WESTERN world has gone mad. As mad as Alice's Hatter.
Posted by: darcy at July 4, 2008 12:25 AM
Dumbledore's Army wrote:
don't forget the French high school teacher, Robert Redeker.
.......................
Well, I'm afraid that I *had* forgotten him--and, no doubt, a lot of others. I could have mentioned Brigitte Bardot, and Oriana Fallacci, and that Nigerian journalist who was forced to flee the country after the Miss World pageant.
These stories are not well covered. Even in the West, many just want these people to go away--what they have to say is inconvenient, and troubling, and would force people to do some real thinking about uncomfortable subjects.
So much easier to just go back to sleep . . .
Darcy wrote:
The curse of Cassandra's is to not be believed. Cassandra's are NEVER appreciated, indeed, they are hated and reviled. Like Enoch Powell. Like all of us on JW - we're the "haters, bigots, racists." Yeah, uh huh, right. My MoonBat brother called sites such as JW and other similar ones "pure hate."
...............................
It's so much easier to turn on those offering warnings. For one thing, criticizing us is not dangerous, unlike with the Religion of Peace . . .
Posted by: gravenimage at July 4, 2008 12:36 AM
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is the most paragraph ever written. Islam and Sharia are antithetical all the rights this precious paragraph delineates. The slaves of allah cannot comprehend the glories of Freedom. We must defend our values whatever the cost. Thank you Geert Wilders - know you are not alone. The Truth and millions here in America are on your side. We will win.
Posted by: Freedom1776 at July 4, 2008 1:03 AM
Obviously, we have got it all wrong.
Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslims-feel-like-jews-of-europe-859978.html
The photo accompanying the story shows a hijabed woman in a close-up, captioned: Mr Malik said that many British Muslims now felt like 'aliens in their own country'. That's rich,really rich.
Posted by: Dunk at July 4, 2008 6:47 AM
The Independent also carries a bathetic sob story "The enemy within? Fear of Islam: Britain's new disease" by a puerilely ignorant bleeding heart.
"Many categories of immigrants and foreigners have been singled out for hatred and opprobrium by mainstream society because they were felt to be threats to British identity. At times, these despised categories have included Catholics, Jews, French and Germans; gays were held to subvert decency and normality until the 1980s, blacks until the 1970s, and Jews for centuries. Now this outcast role has fallen to Muslims."
The difference, my dear, is that none of the other "categories" have a declared and unambiguously articulated objective of destroying the Infidel, thus by implication inferior, British society, culture and institutions and replacing these with that of islam, by subterfuge, and if necessary, by violent means.
Posted by: Dunk at July 4, 2008 7:27 AM
My my my wake me up this must be a dream man do we need a leader in the worst way a churchill an ike, macaruther hell ill even settle for pee wee herman in a viking outfit anyone helllooooo is there anyone out there no.
Im afraid not my guys anyone who speaks out in any position of power is ignored betrayed or called a right wing fanatic i say invade mecca let them come to us and anniliate the bastards its time to take the gloves off.
at July 4, 2008 7:49 AM
Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslims-feel-like-jews-of-europe-859978.html
People - I urge you to read the above article AND the 197 comments. The comments from both Brits and USA are great! Here's an example:
"I am trying to think of some simple, polite, dignified way of saying how I feel about the newly appointed "Jews of Europe," but all I can come up with is screw them! Muslims as a group are victims of a 7th century religon cum politic which, in the 21st Century, removes them so far from reality that they are clinically insane. The longer England puts up with their insane, hostile, intrusive behavior, the worse the country will get."
Reis Kash - Springfield, Oregon, USA
Posted by: darcy at July 4, 2008 8:31 AM
dumbledoresarmy mentioned REDNEKER.
Does anyone has Prof. Redneker full article, in both French and English?
Thanks
Posted by: calatrava at July 4, 2008 9:34 AM
Western lunatics in high places. Forcing their lunacy on the rest. There are too many of them, they act like clones of each other. In the US, and other western countries, they are in every level of gov, from local to national. From cops on the beat to the legislature, to the courts. These people are called liberals/leftists/socialists. Every one is an expert in PC, and have a burning desire that the rest of us live with it. We have already been invaded...not just by muslims, but by liberals. Liberal insanity is why Wilders must be protected. Liberal insanity is also ruining the US which is so diverse that any number of factors are ruining it. Every single item that makes the US and west great is under attack, by liberals. They are the ice breakers for the drive of Islam. These people need to be removed from power quickly, but that won't happen soon because they are entrenched, and idiots and other sick mentalities keep voting for them. For every success Islam has made encroaching on the west, liberals in high places have assisted them. This is the uphill battle that Wilders faces, it is the same uphill battle we all face. Liberalism and PC worship, has tied one hand behind our backs, and seeks to weaken the other.
What is the sound of one hand clapping?...Vote for Obama and find out...
at July 4, 2008 10:39 AM
"The difference, my dear, is that none of the other "categories" have a declared and unambiguously articulated objective of destroying the Infidel..."
Exactly. ONLY the Mohammedans have a "holy book" that commands the annihilation of everyone else. They are the ONLY ones.
Posted by: darcy at July 4, 2008 5:06 PM
calatrava
It's Redeker, by the way.
Here are two articles about him that were posted on jihadwatch in 2006.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013333.php
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013350.php#comments
Click on the first link and scroll down through the comments till you get to a long posting by someone called Sebastien. He provided a full transcript of the French text of the article.
Scroll further down and in a posting by someone called brubos you will find a link to a French site that provides an English translation:
http://extremecentre.org/2006/09/28/robert-bedeker-english-translation/#more-2929
Hope that helps.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at July 4, 2008 5:52 PM
Some thoughts for any French jihadwatchers who are lurking or posting.
The Americans have just celebrated the Fourth of July.
This means that in ten days it will be the FRENCH national day, Bastille Day, 14th July. Liberte, egalite, fraternite - Islam despises and destroys all three.
You have more than a week, mes amis. You have the internet. You have laser printers on your desktop at home.
I suggest that this Bastille Day the cities of France should be awash with revolutionary pamphlets: namely, Robert Redeker's forbidden and 'disappeared' article. Adorn them with the French flag, with the fleur-de-lys, with other symbols of French culture and history.
Are there enough French counter-jihadis to leave a broadsheet or pamphlet copy of Redeker's piece in every public library, and other suitable places?
Put the text on one side of the sheet and use pictures to illustrate his own unforgettable paragraph about the banning of 'le string' on the other.
I would suggest juxtaposing two images. First, Muslim woman in full niqab in the streets of Paris, with Redeker's comment on the permission of that costume.
"la non-interdiction du port du voile dans la rue est, du fait de la réprobation que ce soutien à l’oppression contre les femmes suscite, plus propre à «troubler l’ordre public» que le string"
[' the authorization [lit. 'the non-banning'] of the [wearing of the Muslim] veil on the street is more disturbing to public peace than wearing a thong, because it invites complaints against the upholding of the oppression of women".
Then, next to the black pile of cloth concealing the Muslimah, a delectable Frenchwoman wearing a 'thong' bathing costume, such as might once have commonly been seen on the Paris-Plages, labelled "risque de «troubles à l’ordre public»? "
It is the Muslim woman in niqab, not the French woman in a string bikini, who poses the deadly threat to French public order, to French laws and customs.
In honour of Bastille Day, those of us who live in other countries and shudder at the thought of La Belle France devoured by the Empire of Islam, can write Letters to the Editor of our national newspapers, reminding people about Robert Redeker, school-teacher and truth-teller of France, and backing him up with this lapidary sentence from Jacques Ellul: "there is so much talk nowadays of the 'tolerance' and fundamental 'peacefulness' of Islam, that it is necessary to recall its nature, which is fundamentally warlike".
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at July 4, 2008 6:30 PM
For further inspiration for the French resistance to jihad and sharia, here are a few famous quotes by Frenchmen of the past, concerning Mohammed, the Quran, and the Mohammedans, which contributors to this comments field have unearthed and kindly shared here, in the past.
VOLTAIRE:
"But that a camel-merchant should stir up insurrection in his village; that in league with some miserable followers he persuades them that he talks with the angel Gabriel;
" that he boasts of having been carried to heaven, where he received in part this unintelligible book, each page of which makes common sense shudder;
"that, to pay homage to this book, he delivers his country to iron and flame;
" that he cuts the throats of fathers and kidnaps daughters;
"that he gives to the defeated the choice of his religion or death:
" this is assuredly nothing any man can excuse, at least if he was not born a Turk, or if superstition has not extinguished all natural light in him."
-Voltaire, Letter to Frederick II of Prussia, December 1740.
MONTESQUIEU
"It is a misfortune for human nature when a religion is granted by a conqueror.
"The Mahometan religion, which refers only to the sword, is more likely to motivate those with the same destructive spirit that founded it."
- Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesqieu (1689-1755)
DIDEROT
"When government is based absolutely [or completely] on religion, such as that of the Mahometans, then its fanaticism is turned outward, and turns these people into the common enemy of mankind."
- The Encyclopédie (1751-1772) edited by Denis Diderot (1713-1784) "FANATISME, Page 6:393, Paragraph 42".
"It is true that this book [the Quran] abounds in contradictions, absurdities, and anachronisms, all found in great numbers.
'One sees clearly that there is [in this book] a profound ignorance of the simplest and best-known principles of physics, and that [surely] is the touchstone [for judging] those books which false religions claim have been written by the Divinity, for God is neither absurd nor ignorant, but the vulgar do not recognize these defects, in fact adore them, and the Imams employ torrents of words to cover them up."
- The Encyclopédie (1751-1772) edited by Denis Diderot (1713-1784) "MAHOMÉTISME, Page 9:864, Paragraph 15.
BEAUMARCHAIS:
- from Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais' 1784 stage comedy Marriage of Figaro (adapted by Mozart for the great opera), from the famous Freedom of Speech monologue in Act V, Scene 3:
"I cobble together a verse comedy about the customs of the harem, assuming that, as a Spanish writer, I can say what I like about Mohammed without drawing hostile fire.
"Next thing, some envoy from God knows where turns up and complains that in my play I have offended the Ottoman empire, Persia, a large slice of the Indian peninsula, the whole of Egypt, and the kingdoms of Barca {Ethiopia}, Tripoli, Tunisi, Algeria, and Morocco.
"And so my play sinks without trace, all to placate a bunch of Muslim princes, not one of whom, as far as I know, can read but who beat the living daylights out of us and say we are 'Christian dogs.' Since they can't stop a man thinking, they take it out on his hide instead...".
Last of all, some very un-PC advice from an anonymous writer in a 19th century English-language newspaper in China, also unearthed by a treasure-hunting jihadwatcher
“If politeness and ceremony be observed toward Mohammedans, they imagine they are feared and become arrogant; but in showing severity and rudeness, they are impressed with fear and respect, and they are supple and manageable.”
--North China Herald,1867; found, and originally posted here on jihadwatch by unicorns62000 at January 16, 2005 4:30 AM
at July 4, 2008 6:36 PM
Dumbledore's Army, thanks for the excellent quotes. Our ancestors understood the threat of Islam much better than most moderns, and they weren't afraid to say so.
Also, from the tenor of the quotes themselves, you can see that the "Religion of Peace" has changed very little from that day to this.
Posted by: gravenimage at July 5, 2008 12:17 AM
Yes, dumbledoresarmy, thanks for the quotes. I like very much your suggestions for the French during their upcoming national holiday. It's so good, in fact, that similar actions should be undertaken in the respective national holidays of freedom loving countries everywhere.
Posted by: Eastview at July 5, 2008 5:44 AM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)