IT IS axiomatic that freedom of expression is the foundation of human freedom and progress. When people are not allowed to express themselves freely, there can be no debate or inquiry. It is only due to free debate and inquiry that humanity has progressed from the Dark Age to the Digital Age. This is why the first act of every would-be tyrant is to take control of the marketplace of ideas. - Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post
It has recently been reported that Susan Winter, a politician (Stadträtin) in Graz, Austria has been indicted for "Incitement and Degradation of Religious Symbols". If found guilty, she faces up to two years in an Austrian jail! Why? Because she had the temerity to speak her mind, she had the chutzpah to speak the truth as she saw the truth to be. After all, she believed, rightly in my opinion, that she lived in a European country which upheld the right of free speech. Not so, it seems.
She stated that the prophet Muhammad was a Kinderschänder, child molester, or paedophile. She also stated that Muhammad was a warlord. There were videos of her speech on YouTube, and even on my own website, but they all appear to have been removed! (God knows who removed them!)
That a person in Europe is now no longer able to express himself/herself freely, and with impunity, augers badly for our future here in Europe, for however repugnant a person’s ideas are, that person should be allowed to express them freely. As Caroline Glick stated (above): "It is axiomatic that freedom of expression is the foundation of human freedom and progress."
One thing that differentiates the world of the West with the Muslim world is this: Until now, we Westerners were allowed to express ourselves freely, without fear of reprisals from the law. The same cannot be said about people’s rights in Muslim nations. Is it, then, any wonder that the West has moved from the Dark Ages to the Digital Age, whereas the Muslim world has not? Whatever vestiges of the Digital Age the Muslim world enjoys can be attributed directly to the progress made by Westerners. For without Western civilization, Muslims would still be riding around on their camels, and would be living in tents.
One must therefore ask oneself one simple, but one very important, question: Is it the intention of European politicians to take western Europe back to the Dark Ages? Or are they just too yellow to speak up for Judeo-Christian civilization, the civilization which has brought the West so much in terms of human progress and development?
Do these weak, wimpish, excuses for politicians not realize that this wonderful civilization is not theirs to give away? Don’t they realize that we are merely custodians of this civilization?
Another recent example of the cowardliness of Western politicians is in their recent reaction to Geert Wilders’ wonderful, short film, Fitna. In that short little video, he managed to encapsulate all the dangers that Islam – yes Islam, not Islamism – poses to the till yet free, Western world.
Yet what has he got for his labours in return? Nothing but a blasting! European politicians, almost to a man, have denigrated this courageous Dutch politician for telling the people what they don’t want to know, but need to know if they are to be able to continue living in liberty.
Balkenende, the prime minister of the Netherlands, is probably the example par excellence of a politician without gonads. Before the film’s release, he had been running around like a headless chicken, trying to minimize the expected fall-out from the release of the excellent film.
If the Dutch government had been able, legally, to silence the brave and courageous Geert Wilders, then there is absolutely no doubt that it would have done so.
So where is all this leading to? Well, the answer to this simple question is quite simple: To no good place!
First of all, it should be stated that it is no good talking the talk without walking the walk. Western politicians are very adept at talking up the benefits of democracy and freedom. But to all but the blindest among us, it should be obvious that they are also adept at taking people’s liberty and democracy away from them! They are running scared; and they are hell-bent on avoiding conflict with an enemy – Islam – which is implacable. But there is a word in most languages for this. In English, it is called appeasement. In French, it is called apaisement, in German, Beschwichtigung. Whichever word you use in your language, it amounts to the same thing: Weakness!
It should be obvious to all that the West has not come to this wonderful place without struggle and strife. In each and every age, we will find our enemies and detractors. In the twentieth century, people had to live with the dangers of Nazism, for Hitler was the enemy of the day. But people back then had a backbone, and they had principle, too. And they were willing to fight for those principles; indeed, they were willing to die for them. They were most unlike the current bunch of excuses for statesmen we have leading us today! Think of them: Brown, Verhagen, Balkenende, Bush, ex-prime minister Blair. The list is endless. They are all wimps; they are all cowards, they are all unworthy of leading the free world.
We should all get one thing straight: Islam is not in the West to be equal to any other faith; rather, it is here to become dominant. Muslims will not rest until the laws of the land are supplanted by the laws of the Qur’an, by the so-called Sahri’ah laws that their god – Allah – is supposed to have sent down to them.
Shari’ah law is anathema to all the West stands for. It tolerates no equality between the sexes. It tolerates no rights for homosexuals. It tolerates no diversity of belief; and it certainly doesn’t tolerate disbelief. If Shari’ah gets the upper hands, we shall all be praying in the direction of Makkah, we shall all be Muslims then.
It is time for Westerners to re-assert their commitment to Judeo-Christian culture, to Judeo-Christian civilization, to liberty, democracy and all that our wonderful, superior civilization has given us. It is also high time for the people to stand up and tell their leaders that we will not be silenced.
As Geert Wilders said, the hour is late. There is little time to lose. If we lose this battle, we shall surely be taken back to a ‘New Dark Age’. No kidding!
©Mark Alexander
