Geert Wilders: Wisdom and Courage

… liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe’s children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so. "America as the Last Man Standing" by Geert Wilders Geert Wilders is the chairman Party for Freedom in the Netherlands and delivered this speech on September 25, 2008 at the Four Seasons in New York. Click here for the complete speech. In January 2010 the Dutch lawmaker was in Amsterdam facing charges of Anti-Islamic hate speech according to a January 20, 2010 Associated Press article. Wilders is "one of a dozen right-wing politicians on the continent who are testing the limits of freedom of speech while voicing voters' concerns at the growth of Islam." Click for article. updated 01/20/10

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

America as the Last Man Standing Geert Wilders is a Dutch Member of Parliament Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem.. Dear friends, Thank you very much for inviting me. I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe. First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem. The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entireMuslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, streetby street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city. There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe.With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarfevery church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule. Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: justtake Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities themajority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is nowsurrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the mostpopular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can nolonger be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig,and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten upalmost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear,'whore, whore.' Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TVstations, but to stations in the country of origin. In France school teachers are advised to avoid authorsdeemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the sameis increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can nolonger be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas forwomen without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during theRamadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run forthe worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is nowcommonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. Icould go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization. A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe.San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percentof the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now.Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of thiscentury. Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not bethreatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire toassimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Centerreported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam asgreater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims donot object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesionreported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of aworldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. Andthis is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official stateholidays. The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing toaccept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. Wehave cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey. Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, rangingfrom petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulanceworkers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen itsuprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call theperpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do notcome to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate oursociety into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers. Much of this street violence I mentioned is directedexclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leavetheir neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslimsare now a swing vote not to be ignored. The second thing you need to know is the importance ofMohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims andcannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, letus say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would beno problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile,and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tellsus how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and evenhad prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered theJewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good.If it is bad for Islam, it is bad. Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure,it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essenceIslam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailedrules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants todictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is notcompatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it tocommunism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarianideologies. Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the mostretrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to theQuran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestiniannarrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in thiscountry and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First,because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile upto and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, andthird because Israel is our first line of defense. This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad,frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the frontlines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, SouthernThailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel issimply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War. The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It isa war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving theblows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been noIsrael, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to releaseits energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents whosend their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents inEurope and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangerslooming. Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel inorder to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But ifIsrael were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace tothe West It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a suddenchange their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, theend of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces ofIslam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proofthat the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not meanthe end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It wouldmean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they canget Israel, they can get everything. So-called journalists volunteerto label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wingextremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percentof the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as thenumber one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percentsees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a danger greaterdanger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last manstanding. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you canimagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom anddemocracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and aloss of military might for America - as its allies will turn intoenemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it wouldbe up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens andJerusalem. Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. Mygeneration never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to uson a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives.All throughout Europe, American cemeteries remind us of the young boyswho never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generationdoes not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can onlyhand over this hard won liberty to Europe's children in the same statein which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahsand imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannotsquander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so. MORE