Thursday, 12 February 2009

Controversy has erupted in Britain over the plans to screen the anti-Islamic film by Dutch MP Geert Wilders in the UK Parliament. The film has been described as inciting hatred of Muslims, which is characteristic of Wilders who last September incited hatred against Islam and Muslims saying “the Quran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder, and terrorism. The Quran calls for Muslims to kill non-Muslims”.

Yet, despite this and the fact that it is easily viewed online, some have insisted on screening it in Parliament and insist on welcoming Wilders to the UK for the screening, thereby exposing themselves as bigots who will achieve little more than stirring more anti-Muslim feeling in Britain.

By defending - on the grounds of ‘free speech’ - the screening of this sensationalist and offensive piece of propaganda by a man who has called for the Qur’an to be banned, the supporters of this stunt expose their hypocrisy and their selective use of 'free speech'.

Those who support Wilders are some of the same people who supported two wars in the Muslim world, launched in the name of freedom and democracy, and have been apologists for the mass killing, incarceration, torture and abuses undertaken in those wars. On the one hand they seek to silence those who oppose their views and actions by labelling them as glorifiers of terrorism and extremists, and pay lip service to ‘free speech’ on the other.

These champions of liberal democracy are like the bankers who champion free market economics, for in truth, they not only expose the weakness of their ideals, but in doing so diminish their value in the battle of ideas.

Source: HT Britain