Free Speech Death Watch Update: dhimmitude is triumphant today in the UK. Britain’s Muslim peer, Lord Nazir Ahmed, threatened to mobilize 10,000 Muslims to protest Wilders’ appearance and the showing of Fitna in the British Parliament. Instead of standing up to this thuggery, telling Lord Ahmed that the public order will be protected and making it clear that the British government would protect the freedom of speech as a cornerstone of free society, the British have caved:
Home Office
UK Border AgencyMr Geert Wilders
For delivery via British Embassy in The HagueDear Mr Wilders
The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the Secretary of State is of the view that your presence in the UK would pose a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society. The Secretary of State is satisfied that your statements about Muslims and their beliefs, as expressed in your film Fitna and elsewhere, would threaten community harmony and therefore public security in the UK.
You are advised that should you travel to the UK and seek admission an Immigration Officer will take into account the Secretary of State’s view. If, in accordance with regulation 21 of the immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, the Immigration Officer is satisfied that your exclusion is justified on grounds of public policy and/or public security, you will be refused admission to the UK under regulation 19. You would have a right of appeal against any refusal of admission, exercisable from outside the UK.
Yours sincerely,
Irving N. Jones
On behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home Department
Wilders, however, is defiant: “Will Geert Wilders Be Arrested at Heathrow?,” by Thomas Landen at the Brussels Journal, February 10 (thanks to Paul Belien):
[…] This afternoon Mr. Wilders received a letter from the British Embassy in The Hague…saying that he is a “persona non grata” in the United Kingdom. The ambassador told Mr. Wilders that he is a threat to public security and public harmony because of the controversy created by Fitna. Mr. Wilders intends to go to London anyway. “Let them arrest me in Heathrow,” he says.
If Mr. Wilders is denied entry to the United Kingdom, it will be the first time that Britain refuses entry to an elected politician from another member state of the European Union. The Dutch government has protested to the British government over the unprecedented barring of an EU parliamentarian by another EU country.
Read it all. There is also much more information at Digital Journal and Atlas Shrugs.
And finally, watch Fitna and ask yourself who should be barred from Britain: the jihadist preachers in the film, or Wilders who has shed light on their activities?