Geert Wilders is a Dutch parliamentarian who is a passionate defender of free speech and freedom of expression and a fierce critic of Islam because he recognizes that free speech and freedom of expression cannot exist in an Islamic society, because he understands that Islam is completely incompatible with free, democratic, secular, pluralistic western societies, because he sees the terrible effect Islam is having in his own country, Holland, the rest of Europe and the western world in general and because he knows that Europe and the west are becoming more and more Islamized every day and that this Islamization must be stopped and reversed if the west is to survive.
Malmo is a city in Sweden which has suffered greatly at the hands of the large numbers of Islamists who live there. Its population is 25% Islamic, the highest percentage in Scandinavia and the Islamic immigrants have effectively turned Malmo into a mini Islamic enclave in which non-believers are unwelcome, Islamic law and custom prevail and Swedish law and custom might as well not exist.
Wilders gave a speech in Malmo last Saturday sponsored by the Swedish Free Press Society entitled Free Speech: We Must Never Be Silenced. An Islamic mob tried to prevent Wilders from speaking, tried to shut down his speech and shut him up. The mob also tried to keep people from entering the venue and listening to him, sometimes violently.
The reaction was entirely predictable because that is what Islamists and Islamic mobs do, in the name of Islam of course. They try to shut people up...they try to prevent anyone from questioning or criticizing Islam in any way, shape or form...they try to take away our right to speak freely or express ourselves freely about Islam...they also have no hesitation or qualms about using threats, intimidation and violence to do any of these things..
That is happening regularly and frequently throughout the western world, including the United States, and it is posing a severe threat to free speech and freedom of expression everywhere. Critics of Islam and defenders of free speech and freedom of expression are being silenced all over the west and criticizing or questioning Islam or trying to prevent the west from becoming Islamic is rapidly becoming verboten.
If this continues freedom of speech and freedom of expression will simply be the first of our freedoms to disappear. All of the others will soon follow and we will find ourselves living in Islamic countries governed by Islamic law, with all of the attendant violence, cruelty, barbarity, misogyny and backwardness.
Wilders and other critics of Islam who defend free speech and freedom of expression are people of great courage who pay a terrible price for taking the stands that they do. We are all greatly indebted to them and the world needs far more of them. Islam is on the march throughout the west and people like Wilders are in the forefront of stopping it and reversing its depredations.
And stop it we must...reverse it we must...if we want to remain free and civilized of course.
Which was Wilders message in Malmo and a message that must be heeded if the west is to survive...if freedom, democracy, secularism and pluralism are to survive.
And you and I along with them.
Jerry Philipson is a retired grandfather who has spent many years working in non-profit social service agencies in Canada and the United States. He holds dual Canadian and American citizenship and has been passionate about politics, civil liberties, freedom and democracy for virtually his whole life. He is particularly interested in the Middle East and America and believes that it is vital for people of good heart and good conscience to speak out against tyranny and dishonesty and to stand up and defend and protect Western values, principles and institutions.
