(Il)liberal Intolerance: Free Geert Wilders!
February 26, 2009
(Originally published in the Harvard Salient)
Your presence in this country will “threaten community harmony and therefore public security.” Your views are “one-sided generalizations.” You will be scrutinized in a court of law in your home country for broadcasting a subversive, divisive message. You will find no asylum here.
If the above paragraph were shown to Dutch parliamentary leftists without context, I suspect more than a few would rightly find it to be a detestable rejection of the right of free speech and the right of asylum that are so essential to the identity of that small country. Unfortunately for freedom’s sake, these insults were found in a notice to Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders from British Home Minister Jacqui Smith when he tried to enter the country in mid-February. Wilders returned home where the Dutch government, at the behest of its more leftist elements, continued its investigation of the MP for promoting intolerance.
Wilders is not a popular man among leftists in the Netherlands. Originally elected in 1998, Wilders is known worldwide for his vehement arguments against Islam. His vitriolic platform calls for such drastic measures as banning Islamic headwear in public and creating a limit of 5,000 political refugees in the Netherlands at any given time. His general attitudes towards Islam are best summed up by his own suggestion that the Dutch should “not tolerate the intolerant.”
Ironically, Wilders himself has not been tolerated by the Dutch and British governments. After creating a short film entitled Fitna, Wilders has come under investigation by his own government for inaccurately portraying Muslims. A group of British parliamentarians invited Wilders to present the film to them in England shortly after, but he soon received the Home Secretary’s notice declaring him persona non grata, and was sent back to the Netherlands.
Wilders’s case is disturbing for believers in free speech. The inability of the government to restrict certain views, no matter how distasteful, is a cornerstone of legal tradition in both Britain and the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the European Left seems to have a double standard for who exactly deserves protection under free speech laws. In many cases, the very same leftists calling for the prosecution of Wilders have advocated protection for radical Muslim activists. Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, for example, is a self-described socialist who invited Muslim preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi to talk about moderate Islam. Unfortunately for Livingstone, activists discovered that al-Qaradawi has spoken sympathetically in the past about suicide bombing, female genital mutilation, the killing of Israeli civilians, and the stoning of homosexuals. Livingstone was outraged that critics would point out these inconveniences, accusing them of pushing “lies and Islamophobia.” There is nothing fair, just, or free about Livingstone’s decision to give a podium to al-Qaradawi followed by his vocal support of the entry ban against Wilders. When Livingstone originally stood up for free speech, perhaps he ought to have just come out and specified that he only meant the kind that was convenient for delivering votes from his constituencies.
Wilders is an obsessive, irrational, fixated man. He scapegoats Muslim immigrants as responsible for crime, budget problems, and declining moral standards in his home country – ironic, given that Muslims do not tend to frequent the brothels and abortion clinics that Wilders’s Dutch predecessors made widely available. The point here is that Wilders’s views hardly deserve credence, but they, too, are entitled to tolerance. In a free marketplace of ideas, illogical hatred will be pushed to the margins. In a society that seeks to defend one group against another and to protect a minority from the views of a belligerent extremist, however, resentment will grow alongside sympathy for extremism. People will react strongly against what they perceive to be a threat to their liberties. So long as Muslims are correctly seen as appreciating freedom in the West, they will be welcomed and, over time, integrated. The moment that Muslims are seen as an excuse for censorship, otherwise indifferent people will begin to resent their presence.
The other unintended consequence of statements made by people like Minister Smith is that they actually reinforce Wilders’s point. After all, if Muslims truly are peace-loving people who respect liberty, why does the government have to prevent an extremist from entering in order to preserve the security of the community? In her own lefty way, Smith herself is embracing as much of a dangerous stereotype of Muslims as Wilders is. Unfortunately, when she enters another country, there won’t be a band of protestors to greet her.
Hope for a change
January 24, 2009
This week, America commemorates two momentous occasions. This year, the first African American president was inaugurated. He takes office on the promise of respecting the dignity of the poor, the needy, the sick, the immigrant, the prisoner, the homosexual, and the outcast. This is change we can believe in.
Hopefully, so is this.
Ever seen a train coming down the tracks?
January 12, 2009
Funny thing is, 3 years and 30 million poor retirees later, the “progressive” media will still spin this to look like greedy corporations screwing helpless Americans:
Equality has held steady for twenty years…
January 8, 2009
…but income reporting on tax forms has not. See pages 20 and 21 for the fastest visual evidence that the top percent of richest Americans is doing no better today compared to everyone else than it was in 1987. Read the rest to see why it looks like they are in many publications.
Pacem in Terris
January 7, 2009
Among other things, Cardinal Renato Martino said, “Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp.”
People of conscience everywhere must remember that Palestine has been occupied for forty years. Regardless of the merits of this particular offensive or that one, the occupation has left 60% of Gazans without clean drinking water every day. It has disenfranchised 2.5 million people in their own homeland and violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by denying these people a homeland. It has led to the destruction of countless families, livelihoods, and ideals.
No matter what these coming weeks bring, ending the illegal and permanent military and political occupation of Palestine must be at the forefront of Middle Eastern peace efforts and humanitarian work today and for however long it takes until Palestine is free.
1967 is over. 42 years later, it is high time to acknowledge the sovereignty and self-determination of the people of Palestine and their right to govern, trade, and live as they choose as a member of the community of nations.
Bad Dinner Conversations 