Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), has been on trial in Amsterdam on the accusation that he was “inciting hatred and discrimination” against Muslims. It appears, however, that not even prosecutors believe Wilders to be guilty of the charges against him. As CNSNews explained in an article on the Wilders case earlier this week:
The Dutch legal establishment has proceeded with the landmark trial even though public prosecutors have requested that it be abandoned, leading to the peculiar spectacle of the officials whose job is to secure a conviction instead urging the Amsterdam district court to acquit the accused man.
The lengthy trial also saw the judges replaced last fall on the instructions of a review panel, because of an appearance of bias against Wilders. Prosecution and defense alike have argued that Wilders’ statements about Islam constituted protected speech, and that Wilders was not speaking out against Muslims per se, but against what he saw as a growing threat to Dutch society posed by Islamism.
As reported previously for The New American, the trial of Wilders is a test of the willingness of the West to resist the latest onslaught of an Islamic Jihad, which has been waged for over 1,300 years. As Wilders and other courageous individuals have pointed out, the threat to the civilized world is not limited to al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood; the threat of Islam is based in Islam being a religion of hate. Rev. Elijah Abraham of Living Oasis Ministries spoke with The New American in an interview last year, and among the topics he addressed was his childhood growing up as a Muslim in Iraq:
I grew up with hatred: hatred toward Christianity. I had a lot of Christian neighbors and friends and I loved them, but the Christians I could not separate from Christianity because my community and Islam told me I could not separate America from Christianity … England from Christianity … colonialism from Christianity. So that was the hatred — hatred toward the West — imperialism, capitalism, etc. — and hatred toward the Jews, and Israel, and Zionism. Nobody told me why I needed to hate. The culture of hate is just a way of life, and not just hatred toward Christians and Jews, but also toward other factions within Islam. There is no peace.
For Elijah Abraham, and many other Muslims who convert to Christianity, the peace that they lacked in Islam is found in Jesus Christ.
In his final statement before the court, Wilders remained steadfast in his convictions regarding the threat which Islam poses for the future of his nation, and all of European civilization:
I am obliged to speak. For the Netherlands is under threat of Islam. As I have argued many times, Islam is chiefly an ideology. An ideology of hatred, of destruction, of conquest. It is my strong conviction that Islam is a threat to Western values, to freedom of speech, to the equality of men and women, of heterosexuals and homosexuals, of believers and unbelievers.
All over the world we can see how freedom is fleeing from Islam. Day by day we see our freedoms dwindle.… I do not wish to betray the trust of the 1.5 million voters of my party. I do not wish to betray my country. Inspired by Johan van Oldenbarneveldt and Johan de Witt I wish to be a politician who serves the truth and hence defends the freedom of the Dutch provinces and of the Dutch people. I wish to be honest, I wish to act with honesty and that is why I wish to protect my native land against Islam. Silence is treason.
According to the CNS News story, “About six percent of the population of the Netherlands is made up of Muslims, mostly of Moroccan and Turkish origin.” Despite being a relatively small minority of the population, the violent character of Islam has already been manifested in incidents such as the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh — a murder that impelled Wilders to become active in the move to resist the incursion of Islam into his nation’s culture.
The Wilders trial has placed freedom of expression on trial in the Netherlands, and the loss of this fight may prove fatal to the majority. The Battle of Tours (AD 732), the Fall of Constantinople (1453), the sieges of Vienna (1529 and 1683), and the Reconquista in Spain — along with countless other battles from the borders to the very heart of Europe — are not lifeless dates in history books for those who understand the history of European resistance to the Islamic Jihad. The current trial is simply the latest querying of a very old question: Will European civilization continue to stand against the Jihad? The willingness of Wilders’ own countrymen to put him on trial for speaking the truth bodes ill for the future of his nation if freedom is sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
Photo of Geert Wilders: AP Images
