There is a great irony about Wilders’s remarks as posted on the website of the International Free Speech Society. It had been no secret that the British Government was lees than thrilled by the prospect of his appearance at the House of Lords. But although Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, had made her displeasure known, Wilders assumed he would in the end be allowed into the country. Hence these remarks:
Thank you very much for letting me into the country. I received a letter from the Secretary of State for the Home Department, kindly disinviting me. I would threaten community relations, and therefore public security in the UK, the letter stated.
For a moment I feared that I would be refused entrance. But I was confident the British government would never sacrifice free speech because of fear of Islam. Britannia rules the waves, and Islam will never rule Britain, so I was confident the Border Agency would let me through.
So one might have thought. After all, as Wilders went on to observe,
you have invited stranger creatures than me. Two years ago the House of Commons welcomed Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh, linked to Al Qaeda. He was invited to Westminster by Lord Ahmed, who met him at Regent’s Park mosque three weeks before. Mr. Rideh, suspected of being a money man for terror groups, was given a SECURITY sticker for his Parliamentary visit.
Lord Ahmed, by the way, is the Muslim Labor Lord who agitated for banning Wilders and, after he succeeded, immediately went to the Pakistani press to boast by the achievement. Wilders’s concluding remarks about this issue must give anyone who cares about liberty a queasy feeling:
Well, if you let in this man [i.e., Rideh], than an elected politician from a fellow EU country surely is welcome here too. By letting me speak today you show that Mr Churchill’s spirit is still very much alive. And you prove that the European Union truly is working; the free movement of persons is still one of the pillars of the European project.
How do you reckon Mr. Churchill’s spirit is faring now? How about freedom and “the European project”? How’s that doing?
As Wilders noted, a few weeks ago, an Amsterdam Court ordered his criminal prosecution for making “Fitna” and for expressing his views about Islam. He had, as he put it, “committed what George Orwell called a ‘thought crime.’”
You can, as of February 15, 2009, anyway, still find “Fitna” on the internet–here, for example. Take a look. Much of the film is devoted to juxtaposing verses from the Koran with images from what Home Secretary Jacqui Smith insists we call “anti-Islamic activity,” but what most of us would call Islamic terrorism, e.g., Boeing 767s piloted by Muslim fanatics slamming into the World Trade Center, a train in Madrid incinerated by other Muslim fanatics, Theo Van Gogh stabbed to death in broad daylight in Amsterdam by yet another Muslim fanatic, etc., etc. So here’s another irony that Wilders points out. Although his name is on the film’s credits, there is an important sense in which he was not the true author of the film. “It was made for me,” observes Wilders. “It was actually produced by Muslim extremists, the Quran and Islam itself.” Indeed.
Last week–are you listening, Gordon Brown?–last week they came for Geert Wilders. Who will it be next week?
If western civilization ends with a bang instead of a whimper, it will be because the Churchills of this war are not being heeded.
Let us no forget that the bronze bust of Churchill, loaned to the White House for the last eight years has, with little ceremony, been returned to the British government.
It’s good the Churchill bust was returned. If retained among the shysters, crooks and far leftists of the Obama administration, it would be in jeopardy of damage or destruction as some sort of ‘symbolic gesture’ or other extremist act.
Now if the British government has any sense, he won’t be exposed to just the same sort of jeoparty. We’ll have to see.
The West is contracepting itself into a sexually-indulgent lassitude. Don’t blame Islam for taking advantage of the West’s self-created weakness.
One only need look at militant Islam’s past. In the 8th century, by force of arms, militant Islam overran Asia Minor and North Africa gaining a foothold in Spain until thwarted by Charlemagne. North Africa and Asia Minor to this day are strongholds of militant Islam, where dissent is not tolerated, nor permitted. There is no freedom of religion in these areas nor is there freedom of speech. Israel is the exception. Even though Israel is a state which has a religious base going back more than 2000 years (its origin precedes Islam by at least 1500 years), freedom of religious expression and freedom of speech and free elections, with women having the right to vote and hold office, all thrive within its borders. Why then the hostility toward Israel in the Western world? But even more compelling is the question: Why the timidity and cowardice in the Western World with respect to Islam?
The Brit politicians have only followed the example of the English Church. The Prince of Wales says he wants to be the Defender of Faith, as opposed to the ancient title of Defender of THE Faith. And if that is true, that Faith will be Islam, since the English Church is about as Christian as Michael Moore. When the Anglican Church regains its guts and faith, it will put off Islam in a great Crusade to counter the Jihad. That should be about the time hell freezes over.
Yes, freedom of speech is under attack more than ever these days, more often than not in the NEWSPEAK-like name of tolerance. But I would argue that the Bailout(s) and Stimulus are the first few toll gates along the road to serfdom. . .
ISLAM 101
========
Some preliminaries/corrections:
1. FITNA: (in English, Discord, Disagreement, et alia) – The term refers back to the First Islamic Civil War fought between two rivals for the Caliphate. This battle is often seen as the first clear manifestation of the rivalry between the Sunni and Shiite branches of islam.
COMMENT: an odd but catchy title for Wilder’s film whose subject matter is far removed from that of the historical Fitna.
2. From Wilder’s House of Lords speech:
“…..And second, there is al-insal al-kamil, the perfect man,……” . Must be a typo. He means INSAN (not insal) AL-KAMIL .
3. ISLAM. It is true that this word means “Submission” in English. But submission to what? To a head of state? To a government? To Islam itself?
No, it means submission to God and His will (conf. the Lord’s Prayer….”His will be done”).
Revelation 1—> a true believer of ANY religion will, ipso facto, ‘submit’ to the precepts of his particular religion. In this respect, therefore, there is little difference of what is expected of the believer in Judaism, Christianity or Islam.
Revelation 2—> criticizing Islam because of the etymological circumstances of its designation really is pointless and like so many other arguments propounded by Westerners, clouds the real issues vis a vis Islam.
These insipid “insights” deflect our focus away from the real dangers posed by Islam to Western civilization. (I personally have little patience with this type of attack).
Wilder’s House of Lords address is chock full of these “misunderstandings”:
“Today, I come before you to warn of another great threat. It is called Islam. It poses as a religion, but its goals are very worldly: world domination, holy war, sharia law, the end of the separation of church and state, the end of democracy. It is not a religion, it is a political ideology. It demands you respect, but has no respect for you.”
An extraordinarily vacuous and superficial rendition of the real threat of Islam.
Just to take one example: “holy war”, the so-called “Jihad”. In fact, it is not Jihad or Holy War that’s the danger, it’s Islam’s “Holy Peace” that is the most threatening. It’s not Islam’s “barbarity” that we have to watch out for, but its “civility”.
Take it from me, there’s more to the Islamic “problem” than you’ve been led to believe…much more.
Wish I had more time and space.
The U.S. is commiting genocide against Muslims in Gitmo, just as it was commiting genocide against Mulims in Abu Gharib. (Thank God the European press had the courage and freedom to expose America’s Auchwitz and Dachau, while the corporate-controlled “free” press in America merely parroted the Bush line.) Americans who accuse Europeans of censorship for trying to stop a White Supremacist hate-monger from spewing more venom are rank hypocrites. In the U.S, the death camp of Gitmo, and not some human rights court, that await those who oppose the “War on Terror.”
re: “apostle of love”, should be re-named “a pestle of commonsense” ’cause the uninformed person crushes the reason out of thinking.Rank the follies as they were “Rolfed”out in his/her post:
1.) “genocide” ( oh the horrors& don’t forget the “children” too ) code for oppression of homicidal islamocult maniacs..but, who’s reading the dictionary,these days? 2.)America’s Dachau&Auschwitz=Gitmo&Abu Gharib? who was murdered fool and how many? There are approx. 1.5 billion muslims – how are we doing with our genocide, fool?3.)The media elected President Barry Window-Dressing and the media conducted a war against Bush for 7 yrs…and yet, the corp.-controlled press ( you mean Pinch Slipshod of the NYTimes, etc?? ) merely parroted the Bush line? 4.) as for taking my chances betw. UNHRA or Gitmo- send me to Cuba NOW! UNHRA averts its eyes ( ’cause of $$$ and sex from refugees ) and you’re blind but, Gitmo incarcerates/isolates islamo-anarchists and you’re all putoots…are you still an undergraduate at community college? You work for Chicago City Hall and are looking to upgrade in DC with “the One”? Well folks , the answer is that we have the gov’t we have allowed to emerge by going to sleep and “outsourcing” our future to grifters and
scalleywags….we have become far too entitled and we are a lazy people when it comes to our politics. FULL STOP. Thanks Roger , appreciate the soap box.