New Dark Age Alert! Islam Film Dutch MP to Be Charged
Photo of Geert Wilders courtesy of Google Images
"This is a black day for everyone who has voted for me and for everyone who thinks you are allowed to criticize Islam," he said. "In this country, you are apparently allowed to criticize only if you are politically correct in how you express yourself." – Geert Wilders [Source: SpiegelOnline International]

BBC: A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.

Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders made a controversial film last year equating Islam with violence and has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

"In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to... draw a clear line," the court in Amsterdam said.

Mr Wilders said the judgement was an "attack on the freedom of expression".

"Participation in the public debate has become a dangerous activity. If you give your opinion, you risk being prosecuted," he said.

Not only he, but all Dutch citizens opposed to the "Islamisation" of their country would be on trial, Mr Wilders warned.

"Who will stand up for our culture if I am silenced?" he added.

'Incitement'

The three judges said that they had weighed Mr Wilders's "one-sided generalisations" against his right to free speech, and ruled that he had gone beyond the normal leeway granted to politicians.

"The Amsterdam appeals court has ordered the prosecution of member of parliament Geert Wilders for inciting hatred and discrimination, based on comments by him in various media on Muslims and their beliefs," the court said in a statement.

"The court also considers appropriate criminal prosecution for insulting Muslim worshippers because of comparisons between Islam and Nazism made by Wilders," it added. >>> | Wednesday, January 21, 2009

NRC HANDELSBLAD: Geert Wilders Prosecuted for Hate Speech

Dutch member of parliament Geert Wilders of the populist PVV party is to be charged with hate speech and inciting discrimination, the appeals court in Amsterdam ruled on Wednesday.

Last year the public prosecutor decided not to prosecute Wilders for his anti-Islamic statements, which include calling the Quran a fascist book and comparing it to Hilter's Mein Kampf. Wilders made headlines around the world in March 2008 with his film Fitna, which juxtaposed Quranic verses against a background of violent film clips and images of terrorism by Islamic radicals.

Dozens of organisations and individuals in the Netherlands wanted to bring charges against the politician, but the prosecutor decided that his remarks were painful for Muslims - but not criminal. The Amsterdam court disagreed and found that there was a case of inciting hatred to answer for, both because of the content of Wilders' remarks and the way in which they were presented. The judges said they had weighed Wilders' anti-Islam rhetoric against his right to free speech, and ruled he had gone beyond the normal leeway granted to politicians.

The court ruled that Wilders had personally insulted Muslim believers by attacking the symbols of Islam. The court found that many of Wilders' comments offensive because they "injure Muslims in their religious dignity." About Fitna the court said it was "one-sided, extremely generalising rhetoric to radical effect, using relentless repetition and increasing intensity." >>> News staff | Wednesday, January 21, 2009

DIE PRESSE: Islam-Film: Geert Wilders muss doch vor Gericht

Der Niederländer bezeichnete den Koran als faschistisch und den Propheten Mohammed als Barbaren. Entgegen eines vorangegangenen Richterspruchs muss sich Wilders nun doch vor dem Obersten Gericht in Amsterdam verteidigen.

Anti-islamische Attacken des niederländischen Rechtspopulisten Geert Wilders müssen doch noch von der Staatsanwaltschaft als mutmaßliche Straftaten verfolgt werden. Das entschied am Mittwoch das oberste Gericht in Amsterdam. Es stellte sich damit gegen den Spruch eines Richters in Den Haag, der Wilders Angriffe durch das Recht auf Meinungsfreiheit gedeckt sah. Wilders hatte den Koran als faschistisch und den Propheten Mohammed als Barbaren bezeichnet. >>> | Mittwoch, 21. Januar 2009

DIE PRESSE:
Bild für Bild: Der umstrittene Koran-Film >>>

Fitna: The Movie – فتنة

NRC HANDELSBLAD: Geert Wilders Meets an Israeli Kindred Spirit

Geert Wilders screened his controversial anti-Koran film Fitna in Jerusalem this weekend at the invitation of right-wing Zionist politician Arieh Eldad.

Geert Wilders, member of the Dutch parliament and leader of the populist PVV party, got a round of applause when he told his audience at the conference Facing Jihad that Jerusalem was on the front line of the Jihad, or Holy War. And they stood up when Wilders praised the parents of Israeli soldiers, and attacked the Netherlands “left-wing elite”.

But is is hardly surprising that his appearance went down so well. The Facing Jihad conference was organised by the Zionist Arieh Eldad, who describes Islam as “a global disease”. Its aim, just prior to Israeli elections, was to show “the true face of islam” Eldad said.

“I have not come here to comment on Israeli internal affairs”, Wilders stated in a telephone interview shortly before the conference. “I am not going to tell people which way to vote and I am not going to endorse Arieh Eldad. If the [right wing] Likud party had invited me, I would have come as well.”

Arieh Eldad is one of the most talked-of politicians in Israel. The plastic surgeon is a member of parliament (the Knesset ) for Ichud Leumi (the National Union, a merger of several far-right parties which has nine parliamentary seats). But he is also founder and leader of the new right-wing Zionist party Hativka (Hope). That party’s main goal is defending the interests of the settlers on the occupied West Bank. >>> Guus Valk in Jerusalem | Monday, 15. December 2009 / Wednesday, 21. January 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback – The Netherlands) >>>

Wilders' Fitna Put on a Par with Mein Kampf
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: The Dutch right-wing Freedom Party is furious about a passage in a primary school textbook in which party leader Geert Wilders' film Fitna is put on a par with Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf. The two works are cited as examples of one-sided thinking. The textbook will be distributed to 2,000 primary schools.

The Freedom Party says it's a disgrace that the textbook was subsidised by the Dutch government. The party speaks of political indoctrination and demands that the authors, the Day of Respect foundation recall the textbooks.

The foundation says that even though it's not entirely happy about the phrasing of the passage in question, it has no intention of cancelling distribution. The Day of Respect will be marked next week on Thursday. [Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide] | November 4, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback – The Netherlands) >>>

Thomas Landen's Viewpoint - The Wilders Controversy: Do Europeans Still Belong in Europe?
Geert Wilders likens Al-Qur’an al Karim (القرآن الكريم), ‘The Glorious Qur’an’, to Hitler’s Mein Kampf
BRUSSELS JOURNAL: While America is focused on its elections, which might bring the first Muslim-born president in the White House, Europe is anxiously awaiting Geert Wilders’ movie on the Koran. The Dutch government fears that the release of the movie might lead to terror attacks on the Netherlands or on Dutch citizens abroad. There are rumours that the government may seek to ban the film. NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, a Dutchman, has also expressed concern about the Wilders movie. On Sunday he told Dutch television that he fears retaliations against Dutch NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Last week Wilders complained that the Dutch authorities are putting him under pressure not to release his 10-minute film. Yesterday, a poll showed that the governing Dutch Christian-Democrats of Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende are losing popularity because of their attempts to tone Wilders down. Dutch public opinion, however, tends to be very volatile. Two month ago, I wrote here that “if the Wilders movie results in (fatal) attacks on Dutch citizens and Dutch interests abroad, it might lead to an anti-Wilders backlash. The Dutch are not Danes. They have a history of swinging from one extreme to another. Like the Spanish after the Madrid bombings they might paint their hands white and surrender.”

There is little doubt that Muslim radicals are already preparing ‘punishment’ for the Dutch if they deem the Wilders movie to be ‘blasphemous.’ Westerners do not seem to have a clue about what Muslims consider to be blasphemous. The mere depiction of Muhammad enrages Muslims, even if Wilders were to do it ‘in a respectful way.’ On the other hand, however, things that seem outrageous to Westerners will not at all be outrageous to Muslims. Wilders likes to point out that the Koran is “as intolerant and dangerous as Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.” If his movie shows praying Muslims next to marching Nazis, or if it compares Koran verses to anti-Semitic rants by Hitler, that may seem outrageous to Western eyes. However, a Nazi comparison, which is the worst form of libel in contemporary Holland and destroys a man’s reputation there, will hardly affect Muslim radicals who tend to agree with Hitler and who will in all likelihood take the comparison as a compliment rather than an insult.

Al-Qaeda is not going to blow The Hague to Kingdom Come for comparing Osama bin-Laden to Adolf Hitler, but they will be inclined to take revenge over a cartoon, a picture or a joke. Suppose Wilders’ movie is outrageous by our standards, but not by those of Muslim extremists. Hence, nothing happens after the release of the movie. Then Dutch public opinion will in all likelihood regard Wilders as the extremist, as someone who tries to provoke others with Nazi slurs, and the Muslim radicals as paragons of tolerance.

Obviously, Westerners – and especially elected officials such as Geert Wilders – should never be forced to take the sensitivities of other cultures into account when making public statements (be it in a film or otherwise) in their own countries. The fact that Wilders is under considerable pressure to do just that shows that the Netherlands is no longer his home country and that it has already been penetrated and colonized by another culture. There is no place anymore that Europeans can call their own. The Wilders Controversy: Do Europeans Still Belong in Europe? >>> By Thomas Landen | Tue, 2008-03-04

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Ian Buruma’s Viewpoint: A War on Tolerance
HAARETZ: AMSTERDAM - When "tolerance" becomes a term of abuse in a place like the Netherlands, you know that something has gone seriously wrong. The Dutch always took pride in being the most tolerant people on earth. In less feverish times than these, no one could possibly have taken exception to Queen Beatrix's speech last Christmas, when she pleaded for tolerance and "respect for minorities." But Geert Wilders, leader of the right-wing, anti-Muslim Party of Freedom, was so disgusted by the Dutch queen's "multicultural rubbish" that he wanted her to be stripped of her constitutional role in the government.

Wilders, a popular rabble-rouser whose party occupies nine seats in the Dutch parliament, compares the Koran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf," wants to stop Muslims from moving to the Netherlands and thunders that those who are already in the country should tear up half the Koran if they wish to stay. Tolerance toward Islam is cowardly appeasement in his eyes. He thinks that Europe is in peril of being "Islamized." "There will soon be more mosques than churches," he says, if true Europeans don't have the guts to stand up and save Western civilization.

Notwithstanding his call to ban the Koran, Wilders and his admirers claim to believe in unfettered free speech as a Western birthright. Beatrix stated that the right to free speech does not automatically mean the right to offend. Wilders disagrees. No criticism of Islam, however offensive, should ever be hampered by political correctness. Wilders uses every opportunity to test Muslims' (often very limited) tolerance. His latest provocation is a short film denouncing Islam, which is yet to be screened but has already caused panic all around. Remarkably for a Dutch politician - and a minor one, at that - news of Wilders' antics has reached the world press. Dutch embassies are bracing themselves for violent demonstrations, and the government is considering special security measures.

Some commentators suggest that Wilders, born and raised as a Catholic in a provincial Dutch town, is, like his Muslim enemies, a true believer, driven by the goal of keeping Europe "Judeo-Christian." Perhaps, but this is probably a red herring. His war on Islam is also, and perhaps even mainly, a war on the cultural and political elites, the Dutch intellectual establishment, the Eurocrats of Brussels and the liberal-minded queen. A War on Tolerance >>> By Ian Buruma

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

In der Türkei darf ab sofort Hitlers “Mein Kampf” nicht mehr gedruckt oder verkauft werden

Mein Kampf wurde von Hitler während seiner Festhaftung im Jahre 1924 geschrieben

DIE PRESSE: Offenbar hat der Freistaat Bayern das Verbot als Inhaber der Urheberrechte vor türkischen Gerichten durchgesetzt. Nachdrucke hatten türkische Bestsellerlisten gestürmt.

Hitlers "Mein Kampf", das wegen einer Vielzahl preiswerter Nachdrucke die türkischen Bestsellerlisten gestürmt hatte, darf in der Türkei ab sofort nicht mehr gedruckt oder verkauft werden.
Der Freistaat Bayern als Inhaber der Urheberrechte an dem Buch des "Führers" hat das Verbot vor türkischen Gerichten durchgesetzt, wie der TV-Sender CNN-Türk am Donnerstag berichtet. Eine Bestätigung seitens der Behörden lag zunächst nicht vor.

Mehrere Auflagen ohne Druckgenehmigung

"Mein Kampf", das politische Grundlagenwerk Adolf Hitlers, in dem er vor dem Hintergrund seiner Autobiographie die Grundzüge seiner weltanschaulichen Überzeugung und seines Programms entwarf, war in den vergangenen Jahren in der Türkei zum Bestseller geworden; gleich mehrere Verlage gaben das Buch heraus. Allerdings hatten die Herausgeber keine Druckgenehmigung. Auch habe Bayern als Inhaber der Rechte kein Geld von den Verlagen erhalten, meldete CNN-Türk. Das deutsche Bundesland sei daraufhin vor Gericht gegangen.
Hitler schrieb "Mein Kampf" 1924 während seiner Festungshaft in Landsberg zusammen mit seinem späteren Stellvertreter Rudolf Heß, welcher aber nicht als Ko-Autor aufgeführt wird. [Quelle: Türkei verbietet Hitlers “Mein Kampf”]

THE GUARDIAN:
Mein Kampf sales soar in Turkey

ISRAELINSIDER:
Why is Mein Kampf a bestseller in Turkey?

BBC:
Hitler book bestseller in Turkey

LIVE LEAK:
Hitler’s book to be republished in German?

REUTERS:
Historian wants “Mein Kampf” republished

LIVE LEAK:

Mein Kampf: Original-Ausgabe

Mark Alexander

Munchen Historian Calls for Mein Kampf to Be Republished

Photo courtesy of SpiegelOnline International

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A leading historian wants 'Mein Kampf' to be republished in Germany. Copyright issues have kept it off the shelves since World War II, but in 2015 it will enter the public domain. Then, anyone will be allowed to print it -- including neo-Nazis.

It is arguably the most controversial book of the 20th century. Indeed, Adolf Hitler's notorious polemic "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle") hasn't been legally published in Germany since the end of World War II. Many are concerned the frenzied tome could become a kind of scripture for right-wing extremists.

Now, though, a Munich historian has called for it to be republished in Germany -- as a pre-emptive strike against any neo-Nazis who might want to abuse the text for their own fell purposes. Should Germany Republish 'Mein Kampf'? (more) By David Gordon Smith in Berlin

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