“There is no such thing as moderate Islam,” proclaimed Geert Wilders confidently to BBC interviewer Stephen Sackur.
The Dutch MP, who made headlines last year with the release of Fitna, his anti-Islamic short, is in the news again for having been denied entry into the UK following a directive by the Home Office. Wilders, who leads Holland’s far right Party for Freedom, had come to screen the film at Britain’s House of Lords following an invitation from Labour Peer Lord Ahmed.
Fitna (an Arabic word, roughly translated as “strife”) is a poorly made, ten-minute short which likens Islam to fascism. It features a series of grisly, disturbing images of the 9/11 attacks and the Madrid and London bombings, accompanied by passages from the Koran. Unsurprisingly, the film elicited a wave of protest from Muslims and other religious groups across Europe, who charged Wilders with inciting hatred. He is currently due to stand trial in The Netherlands, and most Dutch TV networks have refused to show the film.
Wilders accused the UK government of showing “cowardice” and “anti-democracy” for denying his entry—a decision made likely for public safety reasons, given that Wilders has received numerous threats and now requires round-the-clock police protection in his home country.
The xenophobic, ultra-nationalist rhetoric propounded by Wilders and his Party for Freedom represents a conservative worldview that is increasingly popular in Europe. The party won nine of 150 seats in the 2006 Dutch election—making it the country’s third-largest opposition party—on a platform that pandered to domestic fears about immigration and its effects on the job market. But behind the veils of labour protectionism and economic liberalism is a sinister perception of the global relationship between Islam and the West.
Among other things, the party has espoused banning Islamic headgear from public functions, suppressing Islamic education in the country entirely, and working to prevent the “Islamification of the Dutch Nation.” In a speech before Parliament in 2007, Wilders proclaimed: “Islam is the Trojan horse in Europe. If we do not stop Islamification now, Eurabia and Netherabia will just be a matter of time. One century ago, there were approximately 50 Muslims in the Netherlands. Today, there are about one million Muslims in this country. Where will it end? We are heading for the end of European and Dutch civilization as we know it.”
Since his election and the release of his film, Wilders has become a central figure in Europe’s free speech debate, triggered by the infamous Danish cartoons of Muhammad in 2007. Positioning himself as a martyr for free speech, Wilders proclaims anyone who disagrees with him an opponent of social expression. “The film isn’t offensive unless you are a violent Islamist,” he told the BBC after being turned away by British customs last week. Although they claim to champion free speech, Wilders and his supporters would deny Holland’s one million Muslim residents the liberty to practice and express their faith.
In a recent interview circulating on YouTube, Wilders reiterated his anti-immigration stance and his virulent dislike of Islam: “I don’t believe in a moderate Islam, but I do believe if Muslims try to assimilate into Dutch society and take our values to their values, then they should have the same opportunities as you or me. I believe our culture is much better than a retarded Islamic culture.”
It’s a shame that at a time when the boundaries between states are breaking down, when good relations between the Islamic world and the West are more necessary than ever, cultural extremists like Geert Wilders continue to foist their baseless arguments upon us. They portray themselves as martyrs through carefully planned populist appeals and media stunts. Wilders’ right to free speech is not jeopardized: his film is widely available on the Internet, as are his editorials and speeches, and the Fitna screening scheduled for the House of Lords went ahead in his absence. The real question is, why is anybody listening?
