Wilders’ Defense of Free Speech

Beaumarchais’ Marriage of Figaro, written at the close of the 18th century, included this 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, Tunisia, 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.

Sadly, today, over two centuries later, Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders’ free speech rights are under attack in an effort to appease the same irredentist Muslim attitudes—attitudes which are devoid of self-criticism, and violently opposed to any criticism of Islam by non-Muslim “infidels.”

Wilders’ film Fitna—the putative source of this Muslim outrage—includes examples of how various Koranic verses are used by Muslim clerics and political leaders to incite Muslim populations to violence. And Fitna is entirely faithful to classical, mainstream Islamic exegesis on the Koranic verses cited in the film regardless of what cultural jihadists, and their witting or unwitting apologists and abettors, may claim. It is beyond Orwellian to vilify, let alone prosecute Wilders – who simply holds up a mirror to Islamic societies – for being in any way responsible for the Koranic incitement and Muslim violence his documentary faithfully records, and he appropriately condemns

Moreover, Geert Wilders is opposed to hate speech laws. On February 19, 2009, in Rome, Italy where he received the Oriana Fallaci Free Speech Award, Wilders proposed the withdrawal of all hate speech legislation in Europe, and a European First Amendment.

That is why I propose the withdrawal of all hate speech legislation in Europe. I propose a European First Amendment. Freedom of speech is the keystone of our Western civilization, it is the keystone of our democracies and the keystone of our freedom. That is why freedom of speech should be extended instead of restricted. Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s and Theo van Gogh’s film ‘Submission’, Kurt Westergaard’s cartoons and my documentary ‘Fitna’ should never be banned, but should be protected. As George Orwell once said: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”.

Earlier, while calling the Koran hate speech with specific reference to the Dutch Penal Code, Wilders was simply asking for consistent application of the Dutch law. And, like Winston Churchill (who wrote that Mein Kampf was “…the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message”), Wilders compared the Koran to Mein Kampf, and called it hate speech according to the Dutch Penal Code.

Wilders’ previous demand for consistency, recalls the Calcutta Quran Petition of the 1980s. Like his Hindu predecessors, Wilders was fed up with Muslim abuse of similar Indian laws, and simply saying if one bans hate speech, in accord with existing Dutch Law, then the Koran is hate speech. The Calcutta Quran Petition chronicled how it was the abuse of hate speech laws by Muslims seeking to impose Sharia mandates on non-Muslim majorities that was the source of the problem.

As described in the Calcutta Quran Petition, two Hindus were arrested—under Indian penal code sections exploited by Muslims to prevent public criticism of Muhammad or other aspects of their creed—for publishing a poster which simply cited 24 Koranic verses, with a caption, “Why riots take place in this country.” In this landmark case, the Hindus were eventually acquitted by a sober magistrate who opined,

...a close perusal of the Ayats [verses] shows that that the same are harmful and teach hatred, and are likely to create differences between Mohammedans on one hand and the remaining communities on the other.

It is well past time for the media—across the political spectrum—to stop their grotesque mischaracterization of Wilders’ unequivocal defense of free speech. But demonizing Wilders, and imposing de facto limitations on his free speech criticism of Islam—no matter how reasonable his concerns may be—is a task for which our craven, lemming-like media elites appear far better suited. To amplify the final point on media responsibility, or irresponsibility, let me close with this sobering observation by Professor Robert Conquest, the pre-eminent scholar of Soviet Communist totalitarianism:

One role of the democratic media is, of course, to criticize their own governments, draw attention to the faults and failings of their own country. But when this results in a transfer of loyalties to a far worse and thoroughly inimical culture, or at least to a largely uncritical favoring of such a culture, it becomes a morbid affliction—involving, often enough, the uncitical acceptance of that culture’s own standards.

Andrew G. Bostom is a frequent contributor to Frontpage Magazine.com, and the author of The Legacy of Jihad, and the forthcoming The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism.

Having worked many stints in Europe, the “freeness” (let alone the viability) of different European countries varies enormously from case to case.

Britain is by far the worst off— England is already finished and wallowing in its Dhimmitude, overtaken by the coalition of Islamofascists and Gramscian Cultural Marxists who have taken over their media, and increasingly even their psyches with their PC orthodoxy. So it surprised me not in the least when the Stalinists of the Lib-Lab-Con triumvirate who rule the UK (and yes, all 3 of those major parties are complicit) banned Geert Wilders. Even the mainstream press now acknowledges that England has by far the fastest-growing Muslim population in the world, with mosques sprouting up everywhere, Shari’a law taking hold and halal rules dominated supermarkets, and London having already become the global center of Islam-style financing.

Accurate statistics in Britain are difficult to come by since the government deliberately botches them, but the statisticians and engineers I’ve worked with there— with access to hard-data metrics (like L&D wards, schools data, housing assignments) uniformly give a minimum figure of 6 million Muslims in Britain— mostly from South Asia, Africa, and West Asia— and growing extremely fast, since they’re also the youngest segment in the UK’s population. Even worse, Britain also has the highest immigration levels in the West, and the numbers are overwhelmingly from Muslim South Asia and Africa. (London e.g. has one of the highest Somali populations outside of Mogadishu.) Even the Poles are all going home (or going to third countries like Holland, Norway and Germany), whereas the Muslims are staying and growing.

The bitter irony here, is that Britain can never figure out the right wars to fight. In WWI in 1914 Germany posed no threat to Britain and specifically sought not to even damage Britain at all, just a wish-list on the Continent (no Bonapartism with the Kaiser) that they’ve largely gotten anyway— but the UK entered that foolish conflict in World War I, got themselves killed or wounded by the millions, went bankrupt and lost their Empire. Now, when Britain really *is* facing a mortal threat, they foolishly embrace PC orthodoxy (another product of WWI, since Bolshevism first prevailed there and then spread through the rest of the West) and surrender en masse to the Islamic onslaught. It’s over for them, and despite many years of doing projects in Britain, I’m getting close to the point of finding the place too intolerable to go to anymore.

As for the rest of Europe? I’d say Sweden’s probably in the same boat as Britain is, run by Socialist, Gramscian, addle-headed fools who suck up to PC orthodoxy. (Canada is also in this boat, though of course not in Europe.) The only factor that may save Sweden, is that the ridiculously cold and miserable weather there has been driving out the Somalis, Moroccans, Iraqis and others to other places that are more attractive (like the UK, North America or Australia). Plus, Sweden’s heaviest immigration has been from Poles, Czechs, Russians and expat Brits fleeing the mess in their own country, so Sweden might just survive despite itself.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Britain and Sweden, are the European countries with a strong sense of nationalism— often with a direct history of fighting off Muslim invaders such as Turks. Such countries include Austria (especially the Austrians— Vienna is now the center of Western nationalism, and nationalist parties rule there), which was at the forefront of battling off centuries of Turkish invasions, and increasingly Italy and Greece, which also spent centuries fighting off Turks and Arabs. Fiercely independent, nationalistic Denmark is also in this category, as is Finland (despite the attempts of PC Swedes there to block their nationalist efforts) and smaller countries like Cyprus and Luxembourg, for obvious reasons. Tough, independent Switzerland, where just about every household has a gun, is also in decent shape.

Germany is also in this nationalistic category, due not only to recent laws but also history and the luck of geography. Although they’ve had some moronic PC policies of their own in recent decades, Germany’s recent immigration laws are vigorously anti-Muslim, and all but bar Turks and other Muslims from entering anymore, while favoring educated workers and other Europeans (as well as Germanics abroad). The vast majority of Turks have gone home (a process accelerated by recent economic factors), and Germany’s own history of fighting Turkish invasions, alongside Austrians, is helping in this. Meanwhile, Germany has ironically benefited from being the only leading European nation (unlike France and England) not to have had much in the way of overseas colonies, since they unified so recently under Bismarck. So Germany’s immigration sources are overwhelmingly from Eastern European countries, Russia, and ethnic Germans/Germanic peoples in North and South America and Australia.

It’s a mixed bag elsewhere, but mostly pleasant surprises. Norway had been following the Swedish suicide method until recently, when nationalist parties began to exert some power and Norwegian immigration shifted, toward welcoming chiefly Poles and Czechs. The Netherlands, despite this foolish trial of Geert Wilders, has woken up. Wilders is the most popular politician in Holland, and his party is already making enormous gains (if anything, the trial has helped). The Dutch have toughened immigration laws that are getting tougher, and Wilders and his allies are advancing the process further— so much so that the Muslims (mostly Moroccans, Turks and Somalis) are now largely leaving the Netherlands.

Despite my prior suspicions, my most recent trip to the Netherlands tells me they’ll be fine. Remember, the Dutch are among the toughest people in the West— they not only successfully invaded Britain (2nd Anglo-Dutch War, 1665) and controlled the English sea coast, but conquered Britain when William of Orange took the throne. They’re a stout-hearted people, and they’re showing it here.

As for Belgium— again, to my pleasant surprise, the Belgians have grown a spine and will probably pull through this. I was in Antwerp recently, and the anti-Muslim vigor from the hoi polloi to the elite was as tough as I’ve ever seen. Nationalist parties like the Vlaams are gaining, and even the chronically divided Flemings and Walloons have unified over tough policies to block Muslim immigration— http://tinyurl.com/35su9m So to my astonishment, Belgium’s pulling through.

Maybe the biggest pleasant surprise is France, which had the biggest Muslim population in Europe (although Britain has likely overtaken it recently). I’ve worked in Lyons and Grenoble as well as in Paris, and surprisingly, France is moving a stoutly nationalistic direction itself. Ironically, the banlieues riots may have saved France by angering the population so much and waking them out of their complacency. Nicolas Sarkozy has been good to his word, very tough on the Muslims there so that France now has the highest deportation rate in the West. France also has among Europe’s toughest, most anti-Muslim immigration laws, followed by a range of tough policies to keep other Muslims out. Net result is that France now has the highest rate of departure of Muslims in the West. Their situation is still uncertain, but France will likely be fine.

And then there’s Ireland, which for a while had been following Britain’s foolish PC policies, but is now becoming much more stoutly nationalistic. Ireland has also introduced some clever policies of late— such as banning the English language for applications and requiring fluency in Irish Gaelic, which naturally tends to favor ethnic Irish abroad (or at least those Europeans willing to learn it).

Spain and Portugal are less certain. Portugal has some nationalistic parties that are gaining support. Spain had essentially open immigration for a while, an incredibly stupid policy— but they’ve recently tightened things up themselves, and the Moroccans there are increasingly leaving. There are also a variety of small countries (such as San Marino and Monaco) that are culturally very similar to France and Spain, but much more nationalistic in their policies.

So as you can see— there’s a big range in Europe and the West in general. Some countries (like Britain and Sweden) are rapidly going to the dogs and will quite soon— especially in England’s case— be under the thumb of dhimmitude.

OTOH, other European countries are much more nationalistic, such as the Austrians with their centuries of fighting off Turks, the Danes, the Germans, the Italians, the Finns, Cypriots and Luxembourgians, who are increasingly being joined by the Dutch, Belgians, Norwegians, Irish and even the French. So most of Europe, especially on the Continent will pull through this crisis and fight off dhimmitude successfully.

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