Free Speech in Europe? Fuggedaboudet!
Netherlands legislator Geert Wilders was recently deported from the UK without being allowed to give his scheduled presentation at the House of Lords. Unlike the UK, the US allowed Wilders free access to the country. The following is excerpted from his 23 Feb 2009 speech in NYC.
Update: Wilders in NYC at a small gathering with extended discussion.
From a post at Abu Al-Fin
Thank you very much for inviting me. And – to the immigration authorities – thank you for letting me into this country. It is always a pleasure to cross a border without being sent back on the first plane.Wilders is under 24 hour a day armed guard, particularly when in his home country, The Netherlands. That is the price of free speech for one who wishes to stay alive in Europe today. Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh paid the price for their free speech in Europe. Wilders and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are living under constant threat of Islamic violence, as is the entire continent of Europe.
Today, the dearest of our many freedoms is under attack all throughout Europe. Free speech is no longer a given. What we once considered a natural element of our existence, our birth right, is now something we once again have to battle for.
As you might know, I will be prosecuted, because of my film Fitna, my remarks regarding Islam, and my view concerning what some call a ‘religion of peace’. A few years from now, I might be a criminal.
...Today, I come before you to warn of a 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, slavery of women, the end of democracy. It is NOT a religion, it is an political ideology. It demands your respect, but has no respect for you.
There might be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam. Islam will never change, because it is built on two rocks that are forever, two fundamental beliefs that will never change, and will never alter.
...Their disdain of the West is so much greater than the appreciation of our many liberties. And therefore, they are willing to sacrifice everything. The left once stood for women rights, gay rights, equality, democracy. Now, they favour immigration policies that will end all this. Many even lost their decency. Elite politicians have no problem to participate in or finance demonstrations where settlers shout “Death to the Jews”. Seventy years after Auschwitz they know of no shame.
Two weeks ago, I tried to get into Britain, a fellow EU country. I was invited to give a speech in Parliament. However, upon arrival at London airport, I was refused entry into the UK, and sent back on the first plane to Holland. I would have loved to have reminded the audience of a great man who once spoke in the House of Commons. In 1982 President Reagan gave a speech there very few people liked. Reagan called upon the West to reject communism and defend freedom.
...Our enemies should know: we will never apologize for being free men, we will never bow for the combined forces of Mecca and the left. And we will never surrender. We stand on the shoulders of giants. There is no stronger power than the force of free men fighting for the great cause of liberty. Because freedom is the birthright of all man. _AtlasShrugs
Update: Wilders in NYC at a small gathering with extended discussion.
From a post at Abu Al-Fin
Labels: european decline, free speech, freedom
posted by al fin at 7:09 pm
3 Comments:
There are moderate Moslems too. One of them, Fikret Abdic, is currently lauguishing in a Croatian jail sharged by the NATO funded Yugoslav War Crimes court with the heinous crime of being the most popular Moslem politician in Bosnia before the remarkably well funded ex-Nazi extrmist Alia Izetbegovic, seized control of the place, of supporting a multi-ethnic Yugoslavia & then of leading a local rebellion against the Moslem Nazis because al Quaida press gands were seizing the young men of his hiome town. This was clearly only a "war crime" because NATO were, for political reasons, supporting the Moslem (ex-)Nazis & our al Quaida friends.
I'm afraid what goes round comes round & we are seeing that now.
Interesting, Neal, but the hordes of hostile Muslims crowding into Europe are largely unaware of such issues. They only want to make sure that Islam is never offended by anyone, anywhere in the world, ever again.
To do that, they are willing to destroy the entire world if necessary. Islam is more a totalitarian political system than a religion. Like communism, Islam cannot tolerate competing systems. So preferably, they would like to destroy the western culture of free speech and free action, and preserve the world for Islamic domination.
Total destruction of the world is always on the table, however, as it is for any thorough ideologue.
It isn't the immigrants themselves who are fanatical about spreading Islam - they just want a living. It is the next generation who aspire to find "their roots". We have found that terrorists have not been drawn so often from immigrants as from the next generation brought up here. But I also know many Moslems who speak with Scots accents.
I believe religion is being used much more as a tribal marker than as a living religion. Bin Laden has nothing to say on the nature of God or on how the Islamic refusal to have pictures of God is more developed than Chrisian iconography or any real attempt to convert. It simply marks nationality. This is because no religion nowadays is living in the sense they were before the age of science.
We have & to some extent still have a similar problem in Scotland caused by the fact that in the 19th C we had a vast number of Irish Catholic immigrants. The tribal markers ended up being whether you follow Rangers (Protestant) or Celtic (Catholic) football (soccer) clubs which leads to jokes about about proving a good Protestant/Catholic by following the team every Saturday but not being so extreme as to go to church on Sunday. I genuinely believe that Yugoslavia would not have split along these tribal lines (both Moslem & Catholic V Orthodox) without considerable outside help - I certainly hope so since it is the best hope for the future.
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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell
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