Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Quran and Mein Kampf ..

Manfred Gerstenfeld lays it down on Geert

Can the Koran be compared to 'Mein Kampf'?

Last week the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled that the attorney-general should bring a case against Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. This leader of the right-wing Freedom Party has made a number of extreme remarks about Islam and Muslims, such as calling the Koran the "Islamic Mein Kampf" and referring to "fascist Islam." The Amsterdam court contends that these and other such statements "affect the dignity of Muslims." The attorney-general's office had previously concluded that these and similar remarks were not punishable.

Wilders was initially shocked by the court's decision, but he may well turn the case into a show trial outlining the threat to Western society from violent and hate-inciting forces in the Muslim world. His lawyers only have to go through websites such as FrontpageMagazine, Jihad Watch and MEMRI to bring overwhelming proof for two central claims.

The first is that there are many radical Muslim authorities, Sunni and Shi'ite, whose incitement to murder and other crimes is similar to that of the Nazis. The same goes for Muslim lay leaders such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The second claim is that these inciters are rarely expelled from Muslim communities, or even strongly contradicted.

Wilders' lawyers may bring evidence of multiple calls for genocide intended to encourage the establishment of Islamic rule over the world as well as fatwas and statements by Muslim religious authorities supporting suicide attacks, or comparing non-believers to animals. All these are usually based on the Koran and hadiths (Islamic religious traditions).

The lawyers could quote Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the highest-ranking cleric in the Sunni world, who has come out in favor of suicide bombings. Tantawi has also called Jews the descendants of apes and pigs. Only the choice of animals differs from Nazi language; they preferred rats and vermin.

Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, living in Qatar, is a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who has approved suicide bombings against Israeli women and children. Despite this, Ahmed Marcouch, a prominent Amsterdam member of the Labor Party, in 2005 asked the municipality for a subsidy to bring Al-Qaradawi to the Netherlands. Leaders of several Dutch Muslim religious bodies did the same. The Amsterdam municipality refused.

DUTCH PUBLIC opinion is divided on the court decision. Fifty percent oppose the trial of the parliamentarian, while 43% are in favor. A similar percentage expects that relations with Muslims will worsen as a result of the case. Theodor Holman, a columnist with the Amsterdam daily Het Parool, writes that he also thinks the Koran is as bad as Mein Kampf.

The court decision has further increased Wilders' popularity. A new poll gives the Freedom Party 20 seats in parliament, as against the nine it currently holds.

Wilders is the only internationally known Dutch politician, and has gained much publicity with his 2008 documentary Fitna, which highlights Islam's radical aspects. Over the past several years, hundreds of death threats have been made against the heavily guarded politician. This is the likely reason for the statement by his lawyer that in the meantime he wants to remain anonymous.

The trial is likely to draw major international attention. The Wall Street Journal wrote that the Dutch are importing Saudi rules, as the court seems to be suggesting that people who blaspheme God can be punished. An international campaign to finance Wilders' defense has already started.

There are Jewish aspects to this case as well. In the past few weeks participants in various anti-Israeli demonstrations in the Netherlands have been shouting anti-Semitic slogans, including "Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the gas!" Several of these demonstrations were organized by major Dutch Muslim organizations, yet the police took little action. Even more important is that Wilders' lawyers are likely to bring at least some proof for his positions from the huge collection of Muslim calls for the extermination of Jews and Israelis. Yet other aspects are what the trial's verdict will mean for speaking about the Bible.

Whatever the outcome, Wilders' notoriety is likely to increase. If he is convicted, many will view him as a martyr, in light of increasing evidence that the greatest threat to humanity - including to moderate and dissident Muslims - indeed comes from the world of Islam. If Wilders is acquitted, many will begin to repeat his statements.

In either case the Amsterdam court may have opened a Pandora's box of a yet-unknown size.

Danger and opportunity are ONE


12 comments:

Always On Watch said...

Yeah, all this with Geert Wilders could indeed backfire on the Islamophiles.

That is assuming one thing: that Geert is allowed to present all the evidence to the court.

Anonymous said...

wow well said. hopefully they cant stop him from pursuing his aproach in court. he could be shut up on purpose with that info deemed somehow extranious to the specific charges somehow.

Pastorius said...

Great article. This trial will be an opportunity for our Wilders to have his say on an international scale. Too bad he has to go through all the pain in order to have this opportunity.

Such is the stuff great men are made of.

Damien said...

Pastorius,

Too bad he could end up in prison, regardless of how good his arguments are. You never know what goes on in the heads of judges, and the very fact that he would be arrested in the first place is a travesty of justice. But that said, it could backfire on the stealth Jihadists, and I hope it does so. Plus if they fail to convict him, it will encourage other people living in his country to speak out.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Geert cares about going to prison. He is already imprisoned in a sense. The man cannot leave his home without fearing for his life. He needs a constant security escort to defend himself from the fanatics he seeks to prevent from defiling the Netherlands. Wilders has balls of steel while the rest of Holland buries their heads to the depths of dhimmitude.

Epaminondas said...

I wonder if they want him in prison under these circumstances

Anonymous said...

No kidding, Epaminondas. If Geert gets thrown in jail, he will need to be held in complete isolation and under constant watch. The Jihadists filling up the Dutch prisons will be sure to get him in their crosshairs.

Anonymous said...

The question then is, will the Dutch authorities do all they can to protect him in prison? Would they assume he'd be more trouble as a martyr or would they gamble that his murder would scare the last remaining resisters into silence?

Anonymous said...

Excellent points.

Anonymous said...

Copying comment from 2008 (re:prosecution of UK blogger Lionheart) . . .

Schengen and Prüm and the arrest warrant that will be along shortly all combine to make safe residence in any EU member state completely impossible for exiles from another EU member state. Even if the Danish police refuse to arrest him they won't, under Prüm, be able to stop a foreign police squad crossing the border to carry it out. And as a last resort the Euro Gendarmerie can just go in and shoot him


- And they call us fascist...

EU citizens ought to be worried . . .very very worried.

HRW

Epaminondas said...

What is America for if not the ultimate refuge for the oppressed and repressed?

I'll say it again.

Geert Wilders belongs HERE.
The EU's teddy bear, strangling repressions are STILL repressions.

Geert Wilder's problem is that he is an american and he is ACTING LIKE ONE, and acting as if the freedoms there are REAL.

He belongs here

Anonymous said...

Why is there a complete blackout on the Lord Nazi(r) Ahmed Fitna story in the British MSM, though foreign media are picking it up? Has a D-notice gone out?

This bully's thuggish intimidation of free-speech is a massive blow to British democracy, with the House of Lords cringing before a mob of primitive, tribal, pedophile-worshipping savages. Yet there's not a whisper of it even in the Tory press, which you'd normally think would be willing to have a go at a Labour politician.

Could it be that the whole subject of Islamic Communal Violence in Britain is taboo? Presumably opposition leaders are just as reluctant to draw attention to this menace as the government, for to do so would expose the full extent of the national catastrophe that the Islamic invasion is causing.

Dhimmi Cameron would have to renounce his commitment to 'Asian values', multiculturalism and Turkish EU membership, thus losing the precious Muslim vote while confirming what the BNP been saying for years ("A wicked, vicious faith").

The LibLabCon establishment are complicit in this cover-up of the extent of Muslim subversion, intimidation, terrorism and treason. They are all traitors, just as much if not more so than the Muslims, who at least make no secret of their primary loyalty to the Umma and disdain for British culture and values.