[R-G] 'There is no moderate Islam, ' says far-right Dutch legislator

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

Geert Wilders, an ambitious politician who knows on which side if the bead
to butter, published a book so virulent against Islam that he was sued here
in Holland.  The court found that, under the E U human rights laws of
freedom of speech that what he wrote was allowed, legal.  Here, the
difference between speech and action still has a distinction no longer
allowed in the U S unless you are both well connected and are speaking the
politically correct speech.  In the U S he would be praised.  Habeous is
gone there.  Not yet here, but the U S is pressing hard to erase it in
Holland.
Suzanne de Kuyper

On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 10:55 PM, Sid Shniad <shniad at sfu.ca> wrote:

>
>   http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1046505.html
>   Haaretz 15/12/2008
>   'There is no moderate Islam,' says far-right Dutch legislator Geert
>   Wilders
>   By Cnaan Liphshiz
>   An international conference on jihad that took place in Jerusalem on
>   Sunday highlighted what hawkish scholars on Islam described as "real
>   disputes" about the nature of the problem. The event also inspired the
>   controversial Dutch legislator Geert Wilders to plan a European
>   follow-up in the coming months.
>   "It's time for such an event in the Netherlands," the far-right
>   Wilders said on the terrace of Jerusalem's Begin Center, where the
>   event was held. "But the cost of security would be much higher in
>   Holland than in Israel."
>   Wilders - the only one of the six speakers to receive a standing
>   ovation from the 600 people in the audience - told his listeners that
>   "as the terrorist attacks in Mumbai proved, there's no moderate
>   Islam," and it is time for the West to realize it is "in a conflict
>   with the Muslim faith at large." He sided with scholars like Haifa
>   University's David Bukay, who averred that "moderate Islam" does not
>   exist and that the Koran could not be reformed or modernized.
>   But American scholar and activist Daniel Pipes disagreed. Quoting
>   Egyptian philosopher Hassan Hanafi, Pipes said the Koran "is like a
>   supermarket where one takes what one wants and leaves the rest." This
>   freedom of selection, he argued, provides a means for reshaping Islam.
>   Pipes opined that those who regard Islam rather than jihad as the
>   enemy fail to realize that a change has occurred over the past few
>   years: Although moderate Muslims are still a small force, they are
>   stronger than they were two years ago.
>   "Millions took to the streets to protest Turkey's Islamist ruling
>   party, the AKP," he said when asked to name examples. And "hundreds of
>   thousands demonstrated in Pakistan" following the murder of prime
>   ministerial candidate (and former premier) Benazir Bhutto last year.
>   Nonetheless, Pipes said he supported more determined Western military
>   action against radical Islam as a means of fostering this change. He
>   also advocated "crushing the Palestinians' hope for eliminating
>   Israel" and opposed the creation of a Palestinian state and the
>   ongoing peace talks.
>   Duke University's Prof. John Lewis, pointing out that Turkey and
>   Pakistan are not Arab countries, suggested that the fight against
>   jihad needs to focus on non-Arab Muslim nations like Indonesia, whose
>   populations "do not share the jihadists' apocalyptic practice of
>   Islam."
>   Wilders' short movie "Fitna" also received its first Israeli screening
>   at the event, which was organized by MK Aryeh Eldad of the Hatikva
>   Party. The film consists mainly of Muslim hate sermons and gory images
>   from jihad-inspired attacks, and due to the death threats he has
>   received since its release in February, Wilders is now constantly
>   accompanied by bodyguards.
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