Ritual slaughter, normal in Jewish and Muslim traditions, is attacked at right-wing pro-Wilders manifestation in Amsterdam, Jan. 20, 2010.In the USA, loonies like Mr. Geert Wilders, just appear in the shape of hysteric bloggers, or television priests, or talkshow-pundits. (Making an exception for Ms. Sarah Palin. That is another story.)
Even so, it is bad enough. But in Holland, a small country in Western Europe, those loonies can even become statesmen, or, as things are at this point, statesmen-hopeful.
Daniel Pipes, January 19 2010, consecrates Geert Wilders' ambitions on his blog: Why I stand with Geert Wilders. More on Daniel Pipes at Loonwatch, USA.
Pipes doesn't hide his admiration for the peroxide blond Lowlands Messiah:
Who is the most important European alive today? I nominate the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. I do so because he is best placed to deal with the Islamic challenge facing the continent. He has the potential to emerge as a world-historical figure.
Pipes and Wilders, 2006
In the USA, loonies like Mr. Geert Wilders, just appear in the shape of hysteric bloggers, or television priests, or talkshow-pundits. (Making an exception for Ms. Sarah Palin. That is another story.) Even so, it is bad enough. But in Holland, a small country in Western Europe, those loonies can even become statesmen, or, as things are at this point, statesmen-hopeful. Daniel Pipes, January 19 2010, consecrates Geert Wilders' ambitions on his blog: Why I stand with Geert Wilders. More on Daniel Pipes at Loonwatch, USA.
Well, well. Mr. Wilders has no proposals for economy, social issues, culture, education, etc., other than eliminating immigrants of Muslim descent from Dutch society. He has no ideas about foreign policy, other than debilitating the European Union (we'll come to this later) and following the Likud - and even more right-wing policies, of Israel (idem).
Pipes:
In addition, Wilders is a charismatic, savvy, principled, and outspoken leader who has rapidly become the most dynamic political force in the Netherlands. While he opines on the full range of topics, Islam and Muslims constitute his signature issue. Overcoming the tendency of Dutch politicians to play it safe, he calls Muhammad a devil and demands that Muslims "tear out half of the Koran if they wish to stay in the Netherlands." More broadly, he sees Islam itself as the problem, not just a virulent version of it called Islamism.
"A full range of topics"? - When Dutch Parliament debated measures to counter the banking crisis, Wilders and his 8 colleague-parliamentarians left the meeting. Playing victims of majority dictates, but in reality, because they have no answers to the economic challenges of the crisis. No, the one-member Wilders party (Wilders himself is the only member, financing is hidden from the public, see my analysis of Wilders-finances later), waited and diverted the discussion to xenophobic issues later on.
Pipes ends the eulogy about Wilders in this way:The Netherlands' fractured political scene means the PVV must either find willing partners to form a governing coalition (a difficult task, given how leftists and Muslims have demonized Wilders as a "right-wing extremist") or win a majority of the seats in parliament (a distant prospect).
Wilders must also overcome his opponents' dirty tactics. Most notably, they have finally, after 2½ years of preliminary skirmishes, succeeded in dragging him to court on charges of hate speech and incitement to hatred. The public prosecutor's case against Wilders opens in Amsterdam on January 20; if convicted, Wilders faces a fine of up to US$ 14,000 or as many as 16 months in jail.
Remember, he is his country's leading politician. Plus, due to threats against his life, he always travels with bodyguards and incessantly changes safe houses. Who exactly, one wonders, is the victim of incitement?
Confronting Wilders' agitprop, is that a "dirty tactic"? We are talking of freedom of opinion here! I regret that Dutch politicians did not confront Wilders with the means they have at their disposal under parliamentary democracy.
They ducked away. That is, why the Dutch Justice system was forced into action. The Amsterdam High Court rejected a lame response of the prosecutors to a number of complaints about Wilders' agitation and decided to go forward in challenging him to Court on the issue of hate-mongering against groups.
The City of Amsterdam has a libertarian tradition. February 1941, a mass strike occurred against the beginning Nazi elimination of Jews, who made 10% of its population of nearly a million. It has been a heroic action against the Nazi occupier. Many strikers lost their lives under SS-fire and in concentration camps afterwards.
The Amsterdam heroic tradition of struggle against anti-semitism
The city of Amsterdam and its major, Mr. Job Cohen and its assistant major Asscher, and its former assistant-major Ahmed Aboutaleb, now government-appointed major of the city of Rotterdam, have consistently avoided discriminatory action against its Muslim inhabitants. Wilders and his provincial followers are all the time trying to represent those politicians as "capitulators" in front of the so-called "Islamic Tsunami". As "dhimmis", shortly. I always am questioning myself about how it can be possible that Cohen and Asscher, of Jewish descent, could be diabolized by an Israel-friend as Mr. Wilders. And, indirectly, by Mr. Pipes...
But no, Daniel Pipes is not completely in tune with Geert Wilders:
Although I disagree with Wilders about Islam (I respect the religion but fight Islamists with all I have), we stand shoulder-to-shoulder against the lawsuit. I reject the criminalization of political differences, particularly attempts to thwart a grassroots political movement via the courts. Accordingly, the Middle East Forum's Legal Project has worked on Wilders' behalf, raising substantial funds for his defense and helping in other ways. We do so convinced of the paramount importance to talk freely in public during time of war about the nature of the enemy.
And yes, Pipes' "legal project", or, in other words: "advocacy against Islam", financed by the US taxpayer under the G.W.Bush presidency, has sent much money to the falsely-blond agitator. So much, that he has not to submit to the rules of party-financing transparency in Holland. Wilders' one-member "party" can afford to refuse government subsidies, thus avoiding being scrutinized on its revenues!
This is a typical "failed state" issue, that must have some consequences on the EU level. The European Parliament should not accept non-democratic maffias as members. (About the consequences of the Wilders intrusion into the EP, another time.)
As opinion-polls stand now, Mr. Wilders' fake party could master a 30% score at national elections (at the latest in 2011), become the biggest one in Parliament and get a claim to the post of Prime Minister. With the Christian-Democrat and the Conservative Liberal Party as junior partners in a coalition (as both big parties mentioned here, have not excluded that sort of coalition up to now), Wilders could effectively become Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
This would not be as disastrous as it looks now, if the Netherlands were on a Pacific island, with a small, self-sufficient, economy. But the country is among the world's twenty biggest economies and a middle-size member of the European Union, as well as a core NATO-ally.
The world has changed into a global village. Small countries may exert a disproportional impact on world affairs. The big European Union Three (Great Britain, France and Germany) are, at this moment, stable and responsible players in world politics. That was illustrated at the occasion of the 2006 "Danish anti-Islam cartoon crisis". All three managed to remain neutral and not add to the world outrage, nor to the provocations by anti-Islam people. The new members of the European Union in the East are, with the notable exception of Poland, too small to transmit their eventual instability to the European Union as a whole.
How did Mr. Geert Wilders get such a large following in a country, formerly known for its tolerance and stability?
That is the subject of the next article in this series.
Keep an eye on us.