Wilders Postpones Movie, Fortuyn’s Lawyer Attacks Wilders

From the desk of Thomas Landen on Sat, 2008-01-26 11:47

geert-wilders.jpg
Geert Wilders

The Dutch politician Geert Wilders has told De Telegraaf, the largest newspaper in the Netherlands that he has postponed the release of his “anti-Koran movie” until next March.
 
Two months ago, Wilders announced that he planned to release a 10-minute film about the Koran in January. Wilders says the Koran must be banned in the Netherlands because it is as intolerant and dangerous as Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. This week a number of Dutch media openly wondered whether Wilders really was making a film or whether his announcement had been simply a PR stunt.
 
To counter these rumours, Wilders sent the opening shot of the film to De Telegraaf. It shows a Koran accompanied by the text: “Waarschuwing: dit boek bevat schokkende beelden” (Warning: this book contains disturbing images), followed by a beheading in Iraq, a stoning in Iran and an execution in Saudi-Arabia. Wilders bought his Koran recently in East Jerusalem.
 
“The film is not just about the Koran but happens inside the Koran ,” Wilders told De Telegraaf. “The edges of the book remain visible all the time. Inside these edges we will show images of what the Koran verses prescribe. Those who are shocked at these things should not get angry with me but with the people who perpetrated these things.”
 
Wilders said he had underestimated the amount of work involved in making the film. “It is so much work. We will still be busy for a couple of weeks.” He hopes the film will be ready in early March.
 
If the film merely shows what the Koran verses say, however horrible these things may be to Western eyes, it will hardly be “provocative” to radical Muslims. Wilders announced earlier that he intends to rip the Koran to pieces, but if he does not literally do so, or break other Muslim prohibitions such as depicting the Prophet Muhammed, writing Koranic verses on naked bodies or showing pigs, few Muslims will be insulted. In other words: as long as Wilders’ film only shocks Westerners and Westernized (secular) Muslims with disturbing images, but not Koran-abiding Muslims with what they consider to be blasphemous, the movie is unlikely to lead to indignation among Muslims extremists.

koran-schokkende-beelden.jpg

Comparing the Koran to Mein Kampf may shock the Dutch, but it will harldy shock al-Qa’eda or the Salafists. On the contrary, they might even consider it a compliment.
 
Meanwhile. Wilders has received the public support of the small Dutch fundamentalist Calvinist party SGP. Cees Van der Staaij, the SGP leader, wants Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Foreign Minister, to tell Islamic countries they are hypocrites if they complain about religious insults in the Netherlands.
 
“If you see what is spewed out daily via various Arabic broadcasters over the world in hatred against the Jews, Israel, the US and the West, the criticism of Wilders' yet-to-be-shown mini-film is pure hypocrisy,” Van der Staaij said yesterday during an exchange in the Dutch Lower House. Deputy Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, who replied for Minister Verhaegen, acknowledged that Van der Staaij has a point. Verhaegen, who is currently touring Muslim countries to explain the Dutch position, told the press in Syria that the Dutch government does not agree with Wilders’ view on Islam. “We are a country where Muslims and Christians can live together in harmony,” Verhaegen said. Last week, the Grand Mufti of Syria threatened the Netherlands if Wilders were to insult Islam.
 
The Dutch government, however, defends Wilders’ freedom of speech. Yesterday, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, the Dutch Minister of Justice, informed his EU colleagues that The Hague would not prohibit Wilders from making his film. Hirsch Ballin told the Dutch media that the EU did not discuss taking common measures in the event that the film should lead to Muslim violence.
 
The Dutch Muslim Council has called Wilders a “racist, fascist and authoritarian” and a threat to Dutch society. Several Dutch Muslim and leftist organizations and individuals have lodged more than 40 complaints against Wilders for incitement to racial hatred. Gerard Spong, one of the leading (and most expensive) lawyers in the country, has offered to defend their cases free of charge. Spong was a friend of the late Pim Fortuyn. Following the murder of Fortuyn in 2002 he lodged complaints against several Dutch politicians for having contributed to the hate campaign against Fortuyn which resulted in his assassination by a political adversary.
 
Spong, who is also the lawyer of a Dutch teenager indicted on murder charges in the case of Natalee Holloway, an American teenager who disappeared in Arubu in May 2005, told Dutch television that “Wilders cannot be compared to Fortuyn because Wilders incites hatred against Muslims, which Fortuyn who had sex with Moroccan boys in dark rooms, did not do. […] When Wilders says that half the Koran has to be ripped to pieces and burned, he is inciting hatred.” According to Spong the Dutch public prosecutor is a coward who is afraid to prosecute Wilders because the latter will claim that it is a political prosecution.

 

 

Sagunto

Submitted by Vincep1974 on Tue, 2008-02-26 10:19.

I liked your message.   I learned about the Mein Kampf = Struggle = Jihad equation from Walid Shoebat's appearance in Obsession.  I have also seen the English version of Islam: What the West Needs to Know.

I can't wait for the Wilders video to come out.  It's funny how Dutch MPs are coming out with Islam videos every few years. 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of my heros. I have such admiration for her courage.. I'm proud that my country has taken her in after the Netherlands so cowardly shoved her out.

 

re: courage #2

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Tue, 2008-01-29 12:35.

Quote from the video:

 

Laura: "There's a deafening silence from the so-called believers in civil rights and human freedom..."

 

@ kappert

 

As a " so-called believer in civil rights and human freedom",would YOU now care to take this opportunity to break YOUR silence on this issue? 

Thank you.

PoD is a great read

Submitted by HenrikRClausen on Sun, 2008-01-27 23:31.

Prophet of Doom is a great read. It leaves behind the lofty halls of academic analysis and calls demented 'demented'. It's even funny until the darkness gets too intense in the Medina years.

Finally, the availability of the complete text online, including long lists of topical scriptural quotes (here's on Jews) makes it a really useful tool when debating on blogs. I've blasted many an Islamophile out of the waters by cutting a couple pages worth of quotes that made any form of apology look utterly ridiculous.

Sure, it ain't balanced scholary analysis. But it's rabidly entertaining and highly useful :)

@Vincep1974, on Wilders' syllogism

Submitted by Sagunto on Sun, 2008-01-27 18:35.

Your remarks reminded me of the fact that the same comparison was brought up by the former Palestinian terrorist Walid Shoebat in the documentary

"Islam: what the West needs to know"

I posted the YouTube 12-parter with the Dutch subs I prepared about 2wks ago over here, as Mr. Landen noted in approval.

Note however that the author, Thomas Landen, in this article wishes to discredit Mr. Wilders for a statement that also features prominently in the above-mentioned film he himself has praised in his previous article for being 'un-Dutch' in its moderateness

[Quote: Thomas Landen] "..It is perfectly possible to make a critical movie about the Koran without being deliberately provocative, such as the one this website posted two weeks ago. However, that is not the Dutch way of doing things".

Perhaps Mr. Landen didn't watch the whole docu, so I'll make things easy: in part5 (direct link), after a good one minute Walid Shoebat says:

"..And as a matter of fact I had this dialog with an Islamist one time. He says: 'Walid, come on, tell the west Jihad means struggle.' I said: 'Yes it does mean self struggle. You're right. Jihad does mean self struggle, but so does Mein Kampf. Mein Kampf means my struggle in the same fashion the Islamist look at Jihad'

Kappert's 'kappertulation' to reason.

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Sun, 2008-01-27 01:50.

Congratulations,Kappert.It is good to see that you have NOT posted a single comment distancing yourself from that quotation (re: pure hypocrisy).In the absence of any  comment to the contrary I must conclude that you not only agree with it but give it an unqualified endorsement.Bravo!

 

However,I must warn you that I shall take a dim view of any hypocritical back sliding on your part should you post any future comments contradicting your  'kappertulation' to reason.

Even when Wilders remains silent, the reactions are telling

Submitted by Sagunto on Sat, 2008-01-26 22:09.

"Wilders says the Koran must be banned in the Netherlands because it is as intolerant and dangerous as Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf."

This media-tailored statement of Mr. Wilders immediately prompted many within the "chattering classes" to not only condemn Wilders for his radical call to censorship, but also to hastily urge for lifting the (partial) ban on "Mein Kampf".

These were pretty well-educated people who never before considered the ban on Hitler's non-fiction debut to be a serious threat to the freedom of expression. If they indeed ever considered it at all. Redirection of moral dissonance in full swing ;-)

It was somewhat hilarious to watch them confidently justify their staunch, though mainly self-serving "stance for free speech", with references to strict "logical thinking".

It would only be logical, the mind-boggling argument stated, when one opposes the Koran being banned that one therefore automatically ought to demand the immediate lifting of the ban on "Mein Kampf".

Perhaps this slightly hypocrytical exercise in logical thinking would be an example of the Dutch 'puritanism' the author delved into in his previous article about Wilders?

 

Courage

Submitted by marcfrans on Sat, 2008-01-26 18:33.

Wilders is certainly courageous.  But he is also 'wrong' IF he says that "the Koran should be banned in the Netherlands because it is as intolerant and dangerous as Hitler's Mein Kampf".  In so doing he is in fact 'legitimising' censorship, and indirectly supporting those who want to prosecute him under the abysmal and anti-democratic 'hate speech legislation'.  Such legislation will always be applied arbitrarily and selectively, and therefore should be resisted and rejected, not 'appealed' to.

The Koran is a text.  It should NOT be banned.  What should be 'banned' is legislation that undermines the constitutional right of free speech.  Wilders should fight for the right of free speech, which includes calling the Koran "intolerant and dangerous", but he should not call for banning any text.      

Fight against the growth of Islam forms a new party

Submitted by Zen Master on Sat, 2008-01-26 16:41.

A good article from the Daily Telegraph on January 18 wrote about a new EU political party named ‘Cities against Islamisation.’ It was formed to fight the growth of Islam in the EU. Vlaams Belang was mentioned, so maybe this fighting back idea might spread.

 

 

Somebody pitch in and help Wilders!

Submitted by Dr. D on Sat, 2008-01-26 15:59.

If Wilders needs more man power to get his film done, somebody needs to pitch in and help him. This film needs to be made and shown widely. People need to be hit in the face with the evil that is in the crummy koran. This is what they want to impose on all of Western society!

"Pure hypocrisy"

Submitted by Atlanticist911 on Sat, 2008-01-26 15:09.

"If you see what is spewed out daily via various Arabic broadcasters over the world in hatred against the Jews,Israel,the US and the West,the criticism ... is pure hypocrisy".

 

Before we even enter in to discussions about the 'rights' amd 'wrongs' of the proposed anti-Koran movie,is there ANYBODY reading this who disagrees with that statement? If there is,then I would dearly love to hear from them because I could do with a good laugh.