Funny some people accuse Wilders of hypocrisy because he's called for banning the Koran, and he's come up with a movie that should be banned in their opinion. Really these people think we won't see where the hypocrisy is here? First of all, if the Koran was banned and preaching violence on its basis was illegal, then surely Wilders wouldn't have the need to even make this movie. It's not like the OIC has made an offer to the West where it offers to ban the Koran in return for the West banning Wilders movie. It's not that I agree with any kind of limits for freedom of speech, but at least that won't be hypocritical.
Then Western political class, which seems to have moved on to the next degree of abject dhimmitude, judging from progress they've made from the lack of defense of the Danish cartoons to the absolute preemptive groveling on behalf of Fitna, offers very little hope. Yes, we see odd speech from Tony Blair or Sarkozy where they promise to defend our values against the religious thugs. But on an occasion like this when we see Wilders alone and abandoned without even his countrymen to support him, I doubt we can take these promises at face value. Where the only international responses to the bullying of freedom of expression is attempts in the UN to impose legal limits to free speech... while the absolute lack of any attempt to guard the individual from the fury of the lynchmob that's driven by superstition and ignorance is ringing aloud in our ears like a death knell to all our freedoms.
We see us and our civilization called 'evil' and 'decadent' and they say what's unacceptable is we talking about their cowardly methods of using acts of violence and intimidation to silence us into submission! There's only one way left for us to fight this danger - and that's the Wilders way. You can't kill our children and expect us not to offend you, if you claim it's offensive for you to be called a murderer.
I think this crisis should serve as a reminder to us all that free speech exists only as long as, and only to the extend to which, we exercise it.
While most of the atheists are still busy criticizing and vilifying Christianity (very convenient, cuz you can't be called a racist and you won't risk getting butchered like Theo van Gogh), it's heartening to see someone acknowledging the real threat to secularism and freedom. That, too, in a fantastic and merciless fashion! Here's Pat Condell's response to the violent Islamic intimidation and dispicable European and UN groveling to religious fanatics surrounding the movie Fitna.
As an atheist myself, I frequently wonder why more atheists aren't speaking out about Islam even though it's becoming clearer each day where the biggest threat to freedom comes from. There's a lot them who are quick to brush it aside saying all religions (or all Semitic religions) are violent and totalitarian, and it's unnecessary to target Islam alone. This thinking is incredibly naive and can only be maintained by a deliberate refusal to measure religions using the same yardsticks. So the Catholic Church was violent and oppressive in the 14th century, does that mean we should try to exhibit understanding and compassion toward the tactics of intimidation and violence by Islamic fanatics? Even in the 21st Century? Even in a land like Holland where you would've thought that no one, not even the Queen and God himself, were above criticism? If Islam and the beliefs of Muslims are too fragile to withstand the right to free speech that Modern secular laws allow us in the West, then the West is not at fault. Nor is the beautiful concept of freedom of speech, which is the very oxygen of freedom. But it is Islam that is unfit for 21st Century, just like its primitive cousins racism and Nazism and communism, none of which could withstand free speech.
Well, if you have trouble following me, I'm sure you would find the man above much more coherent ;)
I'm sure anyone who follows the news would also equate Islam with violence. I know I certainly do because anytime anybody criticises Islam, they're usually threatened with violence. Islam without violence is like an egg free omelet.
I'm sure if you disagree with that, you would appreciate a Muslim's right to threaten to behead me just as much as you appreciate my freedom to make that statement!
Here's the full transcript via Infidel Bloggers(with thanks to HerRoyalWhyness):
Hi, everyone. Well, now that the FITNA furor has died down somewhat, it's interesting to see how many people are condemning the film and how few people are condemning the thuggish intimidation that forced LIVELEAK to remove it.
What happened to all those people who keep telling us, "I don't agree with what you say but I'll defend your right to say it"? Where have they all gone? Maybe they're on vacation.
No shortage of politicians, however, lining up to accuse the film of falsely equating Islam with violence, which is a bit like falsely equating Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse.
I'm sure anyone who follows the news would also equate Islam with violence. I know I certainly do because anytime anybody criticizes Islam, they're usually threatened with violence. Islam without violence is like an egg-free omelet.
The religion is predicated on violence and the threat of violence. It's a 'religion of peace' in the same way that North Korea is a 'People's Democratic Republic'. But we're not allowed to say that, because if we do, we'll be threatened with violence.
When the film was actually removed - under threat of violence - some Muslims had the nerve to congratulate LIVELEAK for promoting tolerance on the Internet. I'll tell you, whenever I think about this stuff now, I feel like I'm in a hall of mirrors... don't you?
To be fair, Dutch Muslims do deserve some praise because they could've reacted violently and probably gotten away with it. We all know that. So all credit to them for not exploiting the situation.
But the very fact that we are grateful to them, pretty much proves the point of the film. Because, let's be clear about this, it was the threat of Muslim violence that caused the Dutch government to grovel in such abject dhimmitude and to run around apologizing like headless chickens before and after the event.
A spectacle which I'm sure many Muslims enjoyed - and why shouldn't they enjoy it? After all, it sends out a clear message to the entire Muslim world that in Europe, we won't stand up for what we believe in, or what we say we believe in. And that we will be intimidated into silence. All you've got to do is shake your fist and we'll do exactly as we're told.
So, Islam in Europe now enjoys the best of all possible worlds. It's a religion when it wants to be. It's a culture when it wants to be. And it's a race when it wants to be. It gets full rights on all three counts - demanding and getting respect wherever it goes while giving absolutely none. Hence, we were treated recently to the spectacle of the Swiss Foreign Minister degrading herself and her country by putting on a headscarf before she was allowed to meet the homicidal leadership of Iran, in a cheap betrayal of all the brave women who have been murdered by these violent criminals in the name of Islam.
The Iranian government were among the first to criticize the film too. Taking time out from executing children, again - in the name of Islam, to denounce it roundly. But I'm sure most people realize that this fake outrage is in no way genuine. It's all part of a cynical campaign of intimidation by the Islamic world to force unwanted Islamic values into Western society. And that's why, in every free country, there are now aggressive Islamist pressure groups. Usually funded by the Saudis, who claim to speak for all Muslims, but who actually speak only for a small band of fanatical bigots like themselves - and who are very quick to insult our culture and our values as degenerate and immoral while being themselves ultra-sensitive to any perceived criticism - portraying themselves as victims, as the oppressed rather than as the oppressors they are. Knowing that if you repeat the lie often enough people will start to believe it. Mr. Goebbels taught us that little nugget of wisdom and the would-be authors of the next Holocaust have learned their lesson well.
Now luckily for me I don't get insulted easily on a personal level, not even if being called a racist Kafir as some idiot called me recently. When somebody attacks my culture, well, that's a little different because that's an assault on my values . It diminishes my sense of self worth. I believe it violates my human rights and I think it should be prosecuted as a hate crime. It's irrational, it's paranoid and really I think there is only one word to describe it - and that is "Civilization-phobia".
This is a word I like to use as kind of like umbrella word for a host of different phobias that manifest themselves in Islam. Including Eleutherophobia - fear of freedom; Epistemophobia - fear of knowledge; Prosophobia - fear of progress; Peccatophobia - fear of sinning or imaginary crimes; Catagelophobia - fear of being ridiculed; Cenophobia -fear of new things and ideas; Cherophobia - fear of gaiety, big fear of gaiety. And the biggest fear of all, of course, gynophobia - fear of women. Islam is terrified of women and thats why, all over the Internet, you'll find clips from Arab television where along with all the rampant Jew-hating and other propaganda aimed at turning children into murderers, you'll find clerics calmly explaining under what circumstances a man may beat his wife in the religion-of-peace. That's right, a man may beat his wife. And they wonder why we don't want this stuff in Europe. If you lay a violent hand on a woman, you're not a man - you're an animal, and I don't care how many so-called scholars tell you that cowardly brutality is the will of god. Chances are, you've never been on the receiving end of the kind of punishment you like to dish out so freely.
So I hope the Hindus have it right, because if there is any justice you will be reincarnated as a female homosexual Jew, and then you'll find out what a pain it is having to deal with violent primitive dickheads like you.
You know, when I was growing up I never thought I would be ashamed to live in the 21st century. I thought it was going to be a new golden age. The space age. An age of knowledge and discovery and we'd have shaken off the shackles of superstition by now. Surely we have the technology to reach for the stars. Maybe we can even create paradise right here on earth.
I remember looking forward to it. Well, here we are and what have we got? We've got Islam, a violent, 7th century desert dogma that wants to take over the world, remove our freedom, subjugate women, brainwash children, persecute Jews and homosexuals and drag us all back a thousand years. And all we can do is make excuses for it for fear of causing offense.
We really are pathetic, aren't we?
You know, I think people living 500 years from now will look back on this period of history and they'll laugh at us.
