Prosecutor calls for Wilders acquittal on anti-Muslim hate charges

Wilders_in_courtDutch Freedom Party Leader Geert Wilders should be acquitted of charges that he incited hatred and defamed Muslims in newspaper editorials and his 2008 film “Fitna,” a prosecutor said.

Wilders, 47, is on trial for calling the Koran “fascist” and comparing it to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf in a 2007 Dutch newspaper editorial. A year later, he released his movie “Fitna,” in which he calls on Muslims to rip out “hate- preaching” verses from the book.

“A politician in public debate should have the room to make proposals” even if they may discriminate, Prosecutor Paul Velleman told the Amsterdam District Court today. While some of Wilders statements contain “a certain degree of crudity,” this doesn’t lead to “unnecessary excessiveness.”

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‘Defence leagues’ plan Amsterdam show of support for Geert Wilders

EDL Bradford4Far right groups modelled on the English Defence League have been set up across Europe and are planning to demonstrate in Amsterdam in support of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

French and Dutch “defence leagues” will join the EDL and several other anti-Islamic organisations on 30 October to coincide with the end of Wilders’s trial for hate speech and inciting racism.

Critics say the demonstration in Amsterdam is a sign of the EDL’s growing influence among far right and anti-Islamic groups in Europe and the US, and part of its self-proclaimed “international outreach work and networking”.

The EDL refused to answer the Guardian‘s questions today but its leader, who uses the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, wrote on the group’s website that the Amsterdam demonstration would “take the English Defence League global”.

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National Secular Society backs Wilders

“In Amsterdam, the Dutch MP Geert Wilders is on trial for daring to criticise the Koran and comparing it with Mein Kampf. To some people this may be an extreme opinion, but why is he on trial for expressing it? It harmed no-one (being offended is not the same as being harmed) and is shared by many.”

National Secular Society president Terry Sanderson on the NSS website, 8 October 2010

Even The Spittoon recently posed the question: “Is the NSS pushing anti-Muslim bigotry as ‘secularism’?”

Vlaams Belang leader faces racism charge over ‘Islamisation’ stunt

Dewinter with anti-Islam banner

A far-right Belgian leader who posted names and addresses of 770 residents on the web in a bid to prove “Islamisation” was at work in the city of Antwerp could face a 500,000-euro fine for racism.

Filip Dewinter, leader of Vlaams Belang (which means Flemish Interest), said on his website that the official registry of residents of an Antwerp suburb “includes only 21 Flemish names”.

“All the other names are African or North African. This mind-boggling list symbolises the Islamisation of entire districts of Antwerp and elsewhere,” he said.

Dewinter, who has a seat in the regional parliament of Flanders, dubbed the district in question “Mecca-on-Escaut”, the latter being the river that runs through the northern city.

His party, unlike an increasing popular sister movement in neighbouring The Netherlands, is on the decline, sliding from 24 percent of the regional vote in 2004 to 12.6 percent in June this year on an anti-immigrant and separatist platform.

A commission for the protection of privacy filed a complaint Thursday against him before the Antwerp prosecutor’s office, alleging violation of a 1992 law banning the publication of private information “based on racial or ethnic origin”.

A commission official, Emmanuel Vincart, told AFP that if the prosecutor pressed charges under article six of the country’s privacy legislation, the politician could be fined up to half a million euros.

Dewinter responded by saying he would keep the list to first names only. “But the political analysis remains unchanged,” he said, according to the domestic Belga news agency. Barely three percent of the names on the list are ethnic Flemish.”

AFP, 7 October 2010

Czech neo-Nazi takes inspiration from Wilders

Tom Vandas4Tomas Vandas, chairman of the Czech Workers’ Party of Social Justice (DSSS), the most famous representative of the Czech far right, is learning from Dutch populist Geert Wilders, but without success as yet, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes yesterday.

Just as Wilders, Vandas wants to drive immigrants and Muslims away from the country and just as Wilders he has been put on trial for his hateful statements. “In our country it is not yet so pressing like in the Netherlands, but the time may come in a few years. They (Muslims) will start to build mosques here and pull down Christian churches,” HN quotes Vandas as saying. He said it is time to warn against Muslims. “Yes, our party will soon focus on this, too,” HNquotes Vandas as saying.

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Court hears how Wilders has poisoned attitudes towards Muslims

Wilders_in_courtMuslims in the Netherlands say that remarks by politician Geert Wilders have poisoned attitudes toward them, making them feel unwelcome and at risk, according to complaints disclosed at his hate speech trial Wednesday.

“My family and I no longer feel safe in the Netherlands because Mr. Wilders is continually making hateful remarks about Islamic Dutch people,” said one complaint read out by the judge. “It’s getting scary…. Soon the kids won’t be able to say that they’re Muslim or half-Moroccan,” wrote the citizen, whose name was not released.

Dozens of similar complaints filed with public prosecutors eventually led them to file charges against Wilders, citing frequent statements he has made comparing Islam to Fascism, calling for a ban on Muslim immigration and for banning the Quran.

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Christian Democrat MPs back deal with Wilders

Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA) endorsed a government coalition with liberals relying on the support of an outspokenly anti-Islamic party on Tuesday, but analysts said the pact could prove frail.

The coalition born of three months of wrangling will rely on backing from the Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, currently on trial for public criticisms of Islam including a comparison with Nazism. Concessions to the PVV include a pledge to ban the Islamic burqa face covering and tighter immigration rules.

The deal was sealed when all 21 CDA MPs voted to back a pact with the Liberal VVD. Two MPs had echoed reservations expressed on Saturday by a CDA congress about the recourse to PVV support.

Reuters, 5 October 2010

Update:  See also “Christian Democrat dissidents back coalition but remain anti-Wilders”, Dutch News, 6 October 2010

Further update:  See “Another Dutch Christian Democrat resigns”, RNW, 6 October 2010

Wilders refuses to answer questions at trial, challenges legitimacy of court

Geert Wilders trialA special court in Amsterdam will decide on Tuesday afternoon if new judges should be sworn in for the trial of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred.

On Monday, Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz challenged the legitimacy of the court after the presiding judge appeared to criticise Wilders’ decision not to answer any questions. Jan Moors said Wilders had often been accused of avoiding discussion about his views on Islam and Muslims. “By remaining silent, it seems you’re doing that today as well,” he said.

Wilders evoked his right to silence at the start of the trial, saying he would not answer any questions and that his lawyer would answer on his behalf.

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Deal with Wilders comes under fire in VVD

Prominent members of the conservative VVD party have renewed their criticism of the party’s intended cooperation with the anti-Islam PVV party of Geert Wilders. At a party meeting, senior leaders condemned the populist politician as “repugnant”. Among them were former parliament speaker Frans Weisglas and former cabinet ministers Frits Korthals Altes and Pieter Winsemius.

A majority, however, voiced support for party leader Mark Rutte, who is expected to become the new prime minister of a coalition cabinet with the Christian Democrats (CDA). With the support of the PVV the two parties will have a one-vote majority in parliament. It is not yet clear, however, if two or even more CDA MPs will refuse to support the agreement when the parliamentary party takes a vote next week.

RNW, 2 October 2010

Wilders’ Berlin speech

Here are some extracts from Geert Wilders’ speech in Berlin on 2 October:

Germany’s national identity, its democracy and economic prosperity, is being threatened by the political ideology of Islam. In 1848, Karl Marx began his Communist Manifesto with the famous words: “A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of communism.” Today, another specter is haunting Europe. It is the specter of Islam. This danger, too, is political. Islam is not merely a religion, as many people seem to think: Islam is mainly a political ideology….

The American political scientist Mark Alexander writes that “One of our greatest mistakes is to think of Islam as just another one of the world’s great religions. We shouldn’t. Islam is politics or it is nothing at all, but, of course, it is politics with a spiritual dimension … which will stop at nothing until the West is no more, until the West has … been well and truly Islamized.” …

A dispassionate study of the beginnings of Islamic history reveals clearly that Muhammad’s objective was first to conquer his own people, the Arabs, and to unify them under his rule, and then to conquer and rule the world. That was the original cause; it was obviously political and was backed by military force. “I was ordered to fight all men until they say ‘There is no god but Allah’,” Muhammad said in his final address. He did so in accordance with the Koranic command in sura 8:39: “Fight them until there is no more dissension and the religion is entirely Allah’s.” …

“After Muhammad’s death, based upon his words and deeds, Islam developed Sharia, an elaborate legal system which justified the repressive governance of the world by divine right – including rules for jihad and for the absolute control of believers and non-believers. Sharia is the law of Saudi Arabia and Iran, among other Islamic states…. Under Sharia law people in the conquered territories have no legal rights, not even the right to life and to own property, unless they convert to Islam….

In 1954, in his essay Communism and Islam, Professor Bernard Lewis spoke of “the totalitarianism, of the Islamic political tradition”. Professor Lewis said that “The traditional Islamic division of the world into the House of Islam and the House of War …  has obvious parallels in the Communist view of world affairs…. The aggressive fanaticism of the believer is the same.”

The American political scientist Mark Alexander states that the nature of Islam differs very little – and only in detail rather than style – from despicable and totalitarian political ideologies such as National-Socialism and Communism….

Politicians from almost all establishment [parties] today are facilitating Islamization. They are cheering for every new Islamic school, Islamic bank, Islamic court. They regard Islam as being equal to our own culture. Islam or freedom? It does not really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire establisment elite – universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians – are putting our hard-earned liberties at risk. They talk about equality, but amazingly fail to see how in Islam women have fewer rights than men and infidels have fewer rights than adherents of Islam.

Are we about to repeat the fatal mistake of the Weimar Republic? Are we succumbing to Islam because our commitment to freedom is already dead? No, it will not happen….

Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky argues that after the fall of communism, the West failed to expose those who had collaborated with the Communists by advocating policies of détente, improved relations, relaxation of international tension, peaceful coexistence….

Islam is the Communism of today. But, because of our failure to come clean with Communism, we are unable to deal with it, trapped as we are in the old Communist habit of deceit and double-speak that used to haunt the countries in the East and that now haunts all of us. Because of this failure, the same leftist people who turned a blind eye to Communism then, turn a blind eye to Islam today. They are using exactly the same arguments in favor of détente, improved relations, and appeasement as before….

We must realize that Islam expands in two ways. Since it is not a religion, conversion is only a marginal phenomenon. Historically, Islam expanded either by military conquest or by using the weapon of hijra, immigration. Muhammad conquered Medina through immigration. Hijra is also what we are experiencing today. The Islamization of Europe continues all the time. But the West has no strategy for dealing with the Islamic ideology, because our elites say that we must adapt to them rather than the other way round….

My friends, when Ronald Reagan came to a divided Berlin 23 years ago he uttered the historic words “Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall”. President Reagan was not an appeaser, but a man who spoke the truth because he loved freedom. Today, we, too, must tear down a wall. It is not a wall of concrete, but of denial and ignorance about the real nature of Islam.