Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) in the Netherlands visited Vienna a week ago to meet with Heinz-Christian Strache, his counterpart in the Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ). While he was there Mr. Wilders held a press conference and gave a rousing speech against Islamization to a large audience.
The first of the expected “lawfare” repercussions has now struck the Dutch politician: a leader of a Muslim organization wants the public prosecutor to file charges against Mr. Wilders for denigrating Islam.
The following article was published by ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk, the Austrian public broadcaster) a few days ago. Many thanks to JLH for the translation:
“War Against Islam”: Public Prosecutor’s Office Engaged
By Clarin Akinyosoye
During his visit to Vienna, the Netherlander Geert Wilders compared the Koran with Hitler’s Mein Kampf. A Muslim organization notified the Vienna prosecutor’s office.
The speech given last week in the Hofburg at the invitation of the FPÖ by the Dutch politician, which set forth his thoughts on the “Islamization of Europe,” will be examined by the public prosecutor. Tarafa Baghajati[1] is the head of the Austrian Muslim Initiative[2] (IMÖ) — the organization that sent the notification to the prosecutor on Tuesday.
Denigration of Religious Doctrines?
It is legitimate, said Baghajati to religion.ORF.at., to examine whether content of the speech is illegal. Specifically, it concerns the persecution paragraphs on denigration of religious doctrine and the prohibition statute. According to media reports, Wilders had maintained in his speech that Islam had declared war on Europe, and was urging people to become terrorists and that the Koran had to be forbidden.
Such speeches being given in a location with the symbolic significance of the Hofburg,[3] said Baghajati, is harmful to Austria’s reputation. The FPÖ, and especially its chief Heinz-Christian Strache, were constantly emphasizing that they are not against Islam and Muslims, but against the abuse of Islam and against extremists, said Baghajati.
Islam-Hatred as a Program
However, said the head of the IMÖ, the fact that the FPÖ invited a politician who makes no distinction between Islam and the abuse of Islam, and even compares the Koran with Mein Kampf, shows where the FPÖ really stands. It will be up to the prosecutor’s office to decide whether the comparison should be seen as a whitewash of Nazism.
“We are afraid that hostility to Islam is becoming more and more a political program for right-oriented parties,” said Baghajati. Incipient Islam-hostile tendencies are also showing up in the mainstream, says the IMÖ head.
“Being Vigilant”
The generalized suspicion directed toward Islam and Muslims, he says, is growing increasingly stronger in the society as a whole. Against this background, speeches like Wilders’ are dangerous for “the cohesion of all society and not just for Muslims.” As with the general social problem of racism, countering it is not just the business of those affected, but of everyone — politicians, media, intellectuals and civil society. They must all be vigilant.
The organization, Austrian Muslim Initiative, was founded in 1999 and strives for to the social participation of Muslims in the general welfare.
Among other goals named on the organization’s website is “civic engagement in the area of anti-racism.”
Notes:
| 1. | For more on Tarafa Baghajati, see the article “A Professional Subversive” from July 2011. |
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| 2. | Just as a matter of interest, the phrase meaning “Austrians” depicts the progress thus far from the “misogynous” general masculine Österreicher, standing for all persons, through Östereicher(innen) — inclusive of both sexes — to the present Österreicherinnen und Österreicher (feminine first) to what a German friend considers to be the predictable end result, i.e., the generalized feminine, standing for both sexes.
Why not? Androgyny beckons. |
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| 3. | Hofburg: From the 13th to the early 20th century, residence of the Habsburgs in Vienna. |
Previous posts about Geert Wilders’ visit to Vienna:
…but, but…..truth
Ah yes, that great puzzling word, “truth”. A concept Pontius Pilate found too difficult to deal with.
A good day to remember that.
Today we are struggling to know the “truth”.
I for one truth can be found in Gates of Vienna, Vlad Tepes, Jihad Watch, . . . etc and with people like Fjordman, Paul Weston, Wilders, Tommy Robinson. Some sine these people and sites as false.
That’s my dilemma: and they say everything goes.
If you listen to Wilders’ speech, you might note that he welcomes those Muslims who assimilate into the host country’s culture. What Muslims appear to want is to establish a colony within the confines of the host country. Those colonies have been used to create unrest and ignore the prevailing legal culture.
Yes, the “progressive” attitude is more like “yes to denial, no to social cohesion.”
“compares the Koran with Mein Kampf, shows where the FPÖ really stands. It will be up to the prosecutor’s office to decide whether the comparison should be seen as a whitewash of Nazism.”
The argument Baghajati seems to disagree with is
Premise: Islam is like Nazism (Koran is like Mein Kampf)
Unstated premise: Islam is good
Conclusion: Nazism is good
A more obvious argument is
Premise: Islam is like Nazism
Unstated premise: Nazism is bad
Conclusion: Islam is bad
“Good”, “bad” — this issue cannot be reduced to such simple characterizations.
On April 30th, 2015, i.e. in a short few weeks, “Mein Kampf” enters the public domain exactly 70 years after the author’s death, when the Bavarian state can no longer hold the copyright. Comparative readings shall be revealing. But getting enough people dare to publish their findings will be a challenge.
You misunderstand the application of “reformation” and, therefore, err in analysis. The Reformation served to construct the Lutheran and Calvinist antitheses to the cozy corruption of Catholic Dogma which had descended into the morass of indulgences selling. What is needed is not an antithesis, which Wahabism, Salafism and other extremist reforms of Sunni Islam represent, but an Enlightenment, as initiated by Isaac Newton and others and raised to perfection in the Scottish Enlightenment.
You are so right. But what’s needed, too, is to stop crowing about “integration.” Europe is for Europeans. Muslim imports don’t belong there, whether they are “good” or “bad.” As a matter of fact, a reporter with the Nigerian name Clarin Akinyosoye does not belong in Austria, either. Are our countries some drop buckets for the population of every failed country in the world?
Ditto the United States. It is for Americans, as they were up to 1965, before the great madness of the 1965 Immigration Act and an open borders policy has transformed the country into a corrupt, tyrannnical banana republic with lots of Chinese chips.
A reporter is just that, Takuan.
Islam is first and foremost a political ideology and system masquerading as a religion in the West in order to get cover.
Geert Wilders a hero for our time. For we the people. For the political and chattering classes, he is everything they love to hate. For he is a truth teller and that the elites right now, cannot abide. When the worm turns, as it must, as it I’ll, these same hypocrites will all say they were with him from the beginning. The beauty of technology. We will know exactly in their own words what cowards and traitors to Freedom they all were. It is only a matter of time.
A few years ago, Tarafa Baghjati would have been dismissed as being away with the fairies and his psychotic rantings would have been instantly forgotten in gusts of laughter. Unfortunately, the European establishment is now awash with cultural marxism and petrodollars and some sort of criminal action for Thought Crime seems likely. The only questions are, what action will be taken and against whom?
It is not true, his party doesn’t like outsiders at all, it doesn’t make a difference of good or bad people newcomers !