Europe toasted

Submitted by H. Johanson (United States), Jan 20, 2010 at 22:56

The simple fact that Wilders had only a few hundred supporters outside the courthouse is not great news. We've had more people standing in line to see Avatar when it came out. We've had blacks come from around the country to their "Million Man March" to simply express black unity. 200 is fewer people than would go to a mosque to listen to a cleric's pre-announced genocidal rant -- in Amsterdam! CAIR in the U.S. could easily arrange to have 200 Muslim thugs go to a talk by anyone they dislike.

There should have been at least 2 million people descending on Amsterdam in order to save and protect the fundamental human right -- freedom of speech. It's the foundation of democracy. 200 supporters is a wake-up call. It means that some of us have short-term memories and forgot that democracy did not exist anywhere in Europe until they decided to import the concept from America. The Queen of England is more than a figurehead -- she is a living reminder of when Europe was controlled by kings and queens and bishops.

Democracy was grafted onto the European body without the natural DNA evolution. Maybe it now sees Islam, another lover of Kings and clerics and a long history of bloodshed, as an estranged brother, rather than a foreign body. A philosophy it can relate to. How else can we explain their easy acceptance of terrorist apologists and supporters preaching in their midst, and their violent fear and loathing of someone who tries to expose that fact, with a 10-minute documentary. The British were so terrified by Wilders they banned him from setting foot in their entire country! What is Europe afraid of?

Wilder's film is fully documented by facts; he has never been accused of lying; he has never advocated violence. There is no assertion that anything he has ever said was untrue or unsupported. Hence, this case, regardless of the "hate speech" label cloak, is about "freedom of speech" and "freedom of the press," the basic building block of democracy. If Europe can only muster 200 on-site supporters for democracy's defender, European democracy is toast. Can it be a surprise that excluding the U.K. the continent is mostly sitting out the war against terror and Al Qaeda? And trading with Iran?

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".