The Cases of Wilders and Winter

The Jordanian Muslim organization “The Messenger of Allah Unites Us” states that the Kingdom of Jordan is about to issue an international arrest warrant against the Dutch politician Geert Wilders “within the next ten days.” Jordan wants to put Mr. Wilders, a member of the Dutch Parliament and the leader of the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, on trial for producing Fitna, a documentary film about Koranic verses advocating violence against Jews and other non-Muslims. (See Fitna here.) Zakaria Sheikh, the chairman of “The Messenger of Allah Unites Us,” told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that he is happy with the decision of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal earlier this week to prosecute Mr. Wilders for “the instigation of hatred” against Muslims. “Finally the judiciary in the Netherlands has taken action against these serious crimes,” Mr. Sheikh said.

If an international arrest warrant is issued against the Dutch politician, countries which have signed an extradition treaty with Jordan will have to extradite Mr. Wilders to Jordan if they arrest him. The warrant will make it difficult for Mr. Wilders to travel abroad. The Netherlands, however, do not extradite their own citizens. The politician, who had already received death threats from Muslim fanatics for his opposition to Muslim immigration before he produced Fitna, lives under constant police protection.

Last Wednesday another European politician living under police protection following Muslim death threats, was convicted by a court in Austria to a suspended jail sentence of three months and a fine of 24,000 euros.

Susanna Winter, a member of the Austrian Parliament, came to the court room in Graz under heavy police protection to defend herself against allegations of “inciting racial hatred and degradation of religious symbols and religious agitation.” In January 2008, Mrs. Winter, a member of the Austrian Freedom Party FPÖ, said that the prophet Muhammad was “a child molester” because he married a six-year-old girl. She also said Muhammad was “a warlord” who had written the Koran during “epileptic fits.” The politician added that Islam is “a totalitarian system of domination that should be cast back to its birthplace on the other side of the Mediterranean.” She also warned for “a Muslim immigration tsunami,” saying that “in 20 or 30 years, half the population of Austria will be Muslim” if the present immigration policies continue.

Following these remarks, Muslim extremists threatened to kill Mrs. Winter, who was subsequently placed under police protection. “I do not feel guilty of racial incitement,” Mrs. Winter told the court. Judge Christoph Lichtenberg, however, disagreed. He told the elected member of parliament: “You have only one goal: to gain votes by a despicable method, by appealing to xenophobic feelings.” The judge also argued that it is impossible to write during epileptic fits.

Despite the conviction, Mrs. Winter is allowed to retain her seat in Parliament. In Austria politicians only have to give up their seats if convicted to an effective jail sentence of at least one year. The maximum sentence Mrs. Winter could have received for her “crime” was two years in jail.

Meanwhile another European politician, Filip Dewinter of the Vlaams Belang Party in Belgium, predicts that Geert Wilders will gain electoral success as a result of the court prosecution against him. “Voters do not accept this,” he said. Mr. Dewinter’s party, the Vlaams Blok, was disbanded following a conviction for “racism” in 2004. The Vlaams Blok politicians formed a new party, Vlaams Belang, which went on to win the elections.

@Monarchist

Monarchist, perhaps you've failed to notice that the Dutch queen is on the same page as the moronic liberals in Holland in condemning Wilders. You need to Google her Christmas speech. And, that pathetic royal birdbrain in Britain, Prince Charles, is big admirer of Islam.

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2003/11/is-prince-charles-a-convert-to-i...

You prattle on about the monarchy saving Europe when in fact they are as stupid and degenerate as the socialist elites.

To replace degenerated massses? By whom??

Dutch queen and all of those royal families of Europe who agreed to play a role of well paid clowns in democratic circus are NOT monarchists. They are democrats and openly admit to be democrats! In current conditions all of those people who refuse to declare their support for re-establishment of real monarchy should surrender their titles. They don't deserve such honor. We are living in difficult times and thus I'm not very committed to legitimism. Those legitimate rulers whom reject monarchy as a political system should be stripped of their rights to crown.

I agree with you that aristocracy degenerate as well, however ruling establishment might be always replaced by other, more worthy people. This is not the case as far as democracy is concentrated, this the rule of masses and thus masses degenerate and there is nobody else to replace them.

Freedom of Opinion and Expression

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states :
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Inoffensive speech needs no protection. If speech can be outlawed because it is offensive, as a practical matter, freedom of expression does not and cannot exist.

What is happening to Geert Wilders is a travesty.

Declaration of Human Rights

This is not something that conservatives should raise in defence. This document was produced by socialist international and very often goes clearly against basic conservative principles. If you raise DoHR, it look like you accept everything. Unless you would clearly write that the left is unable to stick to its own principles collected in this document.

Re: Declaration of Human Rights

Monarchist: I agree. I cited the DoHR precisely because, in other circumstances, the left would be eager to assert its principles as their own. Their hypocrisy is without limits - and without shame.

Irritating posting

This article gives a clear picture of the dismal state of European culture and 'democracy' today.

You should finally understand that  left wing dictatorship is nearly unavainable consequence of every democratic regime. Dimisal of culture or rather colappse of the western civilization is caused by democracy. People no longer look for authorities, they chose their own way provided to them of course by leftist media.   Something so stupid like democratic regime simply cannot stand long.

Monomane

Monarchist: We tried monarchy for 150 years. It didn't work. We then devised a constitutional system intended to preserve the strengths, and mitigate the weaknesses, of monarchical government. I would agree that excesses in the democratic direction have subverted our well-wrought constitutional system. But so have they subverted the well-wrought constitutional monarchy of Britain. I do not see monarchy as in any way a solution to our ills. We require rather a spiritual and cultural renaissance that will overcome our liberal political prejudices, along with our other spiritual and intellectual errors. Sursum corda!

stupid mrs. Winter

In the war against Islam, in contemporary time in Europe, it should be avoided to insult Mohammed openly.

Her death threat was not triggered because she said Islam is totalitarian, or by contesting the expected "muslim tsunami" of immigration. Islamists can live with that.

Just don't insult their prophet. It 's the only thing that triggers their anger and therefore, it is tactically counterproductive at this moment in time at this place.

 

 

Speak Freely!

Cogito: Please give the reasons for your tactical advice to obey, for now, the sharia-based strictures against insulting the so-called Prophet. Given the Islamic propagandists' efforts to exploit Western institutions in their efforts to exert control and power in the West, the opposite to what you advise seems called for: a massive campaign of truth-telling, so widespread that the neo-Nazis of the leftist-Moslem alliance will not be able to quell it. It is probably not the truth, and not provable, that Mohammed was a child molester in the context of his era, though freedom of speech requires a wide berth in the discussion of important political issues. The essential truth, that everyone should speak, is that Moslems are commanded to be our enemies by their most deeply held beliefs, and that their presence in the West in any but the tiniest numbers is incompatible with the safety and prosperity and continuing identity of Western peoples. In very small numbers, Moslems can peacefully thrive in the West because they are under no compulsion to subvert and dominate Western societies. But when a very slight critical mass is reached, they are helpless against the religious command to hate, deceive, exterminate, dominate, and exploit the infidel. The great truth that everyone must speak, now, is that permitting substantial Moslem immigration to the West, with the result that any community has more than a tiny Moslem minority, was a terrible mistake which must be reversed as quickly as possible. The steps to be taken are: 1) end all Moslem immigration; 2) encourage Moslem outmigration by a) offering cash payments and purchase of real property to those who depart; and b) outlawing Moslem organizations, assemblies, and activism of any type as subversive conspiracies. Western countries used to know how to protect themselves from serious threats. These measures are entirely consistent with such traditional knowledge.

See Don Cheadle's Traitor for a powerful demonstration of the above. And viva Geert Wilders!

goose and gander

This article gives a clear picture of the dismal state of European culture and 'democracy' today.  But, if one is going to indict the Jordanians on this website, let's not forget the Belgians.   A couple of years ago the Belgian parliament had passed some law claiming 'universal jurisdiction', and a number of nutty leftie Belgians were preparing 'charges' against American politicians.  If I am not mistaken, Rummy threathened to remove NATO from Brussels, and the Belgian powers-that-be managed to 'adjust' the law and 'diffuse' that particular 'bomb'. For the moment, at least.  

Perhaps this comment belongs more appropriately under the (excellent) article by Laughland on the importance of national sovereignty, but I thought that the 'Jordanians' needed to be put in some perspective. The two parts of 'Eurabia' (either side of the Mediterranean) may show great similarities in their intolerance, but for the moment they are still pursuing different ends and different 'enemies'.

Tell me again

Tell me again, why is it that European nations can not issue international arrest warrants for imams, mullahs, ayatollahs and and various government officials of moslem nations for the instigation of hatred against non- moslems? Is Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel and the denial of the holocaust not the instigation of hatred against Jews? Are there not laws in Germany and France against the denial of the holocaust?

 Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman Encourages  Martyrdom in Gaza: 'We Must Love Death'; ‘There Are Black-Eyed Virgins Ready For You'; ‘We Must Teach Our Children to... Hate the Jews'. Is this not a reason to issue an international arrest warrant for him? Or how about Egyptian Cleric Safwat Higazi on Hamas TV: Dispatch Those Sons of Apes and Pigs to the Hellfire – On the Wings of Qassam Rockets? Or Sheik Himam Sa'id, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan to Palestinians: Slaughter the Jews Like You Did in 1929; Blow Yourselves Up in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

 How are these statements any different from Mr. Wilders or Susanna Winter's statements except for the fact that Wilders' and Winter's statements were true and did not call for the killing of moslems?

 Or is this all just a one way street that the dhimmi governments of Europe are happy to go down?