Brits Ban Geert Wilders

Dutch protest Britain's ban of right-wing lawmaker

The British government banned Dutch right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders from visiting the country to show his anti-Islam film "Fitna" at the Houses of Parliament, Wilders said Tuesday.

Wilders said he was invited by a member of British Parliament's upper house, the House of Lords, to show his 15-minute film, which criticizes the Quran as a "fascist book."

But he was informed Tuesday in a letter from the British Embassy he would not be allowed into Britain.

The film sparked violent protests around the Muslim world last year for linking Quranic verses with footage of terrorist attacks.

In a telephone interview Wilders called the decision "cowardly" and vowed to defy it.

"Let them try to detain me," he told The Associated Press, adding that he had lunch in the British House of Lords in December.

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said the Dutch government would press Britain to reverse the ban and said he "deeply regretted" that a Dutch lawmaker had been barred access.

Britain's Home Office, which is responsible for immigration issues, said it had no specific comment to make about Wilders' case.

But in a statement the Home Office said it "opposes extremism in all its forms" and would work to "stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country."

Lord Pearson, who invited Wilders to show "Fitna" at the House of Lords on Thursday, said he was "very surprised" at the news and was looking into what happened.

Wilders said the embassy letter informed him he was being refused entry because his views "threaten community harmony and therefore public security" in Britain.

He said the letter cited article 19 of the 2006 British Immigration Regulations.

According to a copy of the regulations on the Home Office Web site, the article allows a person to be banned from the United Kingdom "if his exclusion is justified on grounds of public policy, public security or public health ..."

Wilders has lived for years with round-the-clock security because of his fierce criticism of Islam. He has urged the government to ban the Quran in the same way it did Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" and warned of a "tsunami" of Islam swamping the Netherlands.

Last month, a court in Amsterdam ordered him prosecuted for hate speech, a rarely punished crime in the liberal Netherlands that carries a maximum one-year sentence.

Wilders has appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the order.

The lawmaker, whose Freedom Party holds nine of Dutch parliament's 120 seats, said he was shocked by the travel ban.

"We are talking here about a European Union country, one of the oldest democracies in the Western world," he said.

Neville Chamberlain was unavailable for comment.

Via The International Herald Tribune

Fitna Breaks No Laws

So say the Dutch.

Expect much outrage and seething today.

Fitna, the short feature film on Islam and violence put together by MP Geert Wilders does not break the law, the public prosecution department said on Monday, according to news agency ANP.

In addition, a number of statements about Islam made by Wilders over the past few months are also within legal limits, ANP reported Amsterdam's chief public prosecutor Leo de Wit as saying.

Fitna, a 16-minute compilation of video footage, was released on the internet on March 27. An article in the Volkskrant newspaper in which Wilders called for a ban on the Koran was also investigated.

Islamist Morons Respond to Fitna

A couple of weeks ago it was some semi-retarded Saudi blogger who spliced together some clips taken completely out of context.

Now an al-Qaeda linked website has released another attempt at responding to Geert Wilders' Fitna by reportedly showing alleged civilian victims of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.

Weak.

An al Qaeda-linked website has posted a 10-minute film showing civilians killed or maimed in U.S. and Israeli air strikes as an answer to an anti-Koran film released by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders last month.

The video, billed as a "response to the film called 'fitna' produced by the hateful crusader Wilders", is dedicated more to criticizing the U.S.-led "war on terror" than Wilders himself.

Whatever.

The response, posted on an al Qaeda-linked website that has carried videos from Osama bin Laden, paints U.S.-led wars as modern-day Crusades led by President George W. Bush, a devout Christian whose two terms in office were won with strong backing from the religious right.

One in four U.S. adults count themselves as evangelical or "born again", giving them political clout in the United States.

The film was described as an Al-Muraiqib production but its makers did not identify themselves further. It opens with marching soldiers before cutting to a poster reading "Jesus Camp: America is born again".

Not sure where they got these statistics claiming one in four U.S. adults is born again. Seems to me that's way too high a number. What it has to do with anything is anyone's guess.

"Nazarenes and Jews are the terrorists and their past and their present bear witness to this," read a statement presenting the film. "The true enemy of Islam is the Crusader Pope, God curse him, and the leader of the Crusader campaign Bush."

Yawn. These idiots really need to freshen up their material.

The story provides no link to the video and frankly, it's probably not worth your time.

'Fitna' Made Them Do It: Taliban Kill Dutch Soliders

I'd blame their predisposition toward violence and savagery, but I guess these animals can now blame Geert Wilders, so maybe some people will give them a pass.

The Taliban said a deadly attack on Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan was in retaliation for an anti-Islamic film made by a politician from the Netherlands, a U.S. terrorism monitoring service said on Sunday.

The son of the new chief of the Dutch military and another Dutch soldier serving with NATO-led forces were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Friday.

The attack was one of "a sequence of missions taking revenge for the insulting film", the Taliban said in a message in Arabic on its website, according to the terrorism monitoring service of a U.S. author and analyst who goes by the pseudonym Laura Mansfield.

Dutch MP Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, launched the anti-Koran film "Fitna" -- an Arabic term that can mean strife -- on the Internet last month.

Had Wilders never made the film, obviously the Taliban would today instead be preaching love and tolerance. Instead, it was the horrific images of Muslim-perpetrated violence that led to these incidents of violence perpetrated by Muslims.

Illiterate Saudi Blogger Releases Response to Fitna

No word whether any rioting or seething has broken out in the Christian community. I guess this moron thinks he's being cute, when all he's doing is demonstrating his inability to string together a coherent sentence.

Watch this insipid video cobbled together using news footage. Really silly.

The recent film "Fitna" by the controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders was seen by many as an attack on Islam. Now a Saudi blogger has created a film featuring violent texts from the Bible, with the intention of showing that stereotyping can go both ways.

Sure, show how stereotyping goes both ways. One problem though: I don't see too many Christian flying planes into buildings and chopping off heads.

A Saudi blogger has produced an online movie mocking the recent anti-Islamic film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders (more...), using the Bible and Christian extremists as the subject matter rather than the Koran and Muslims.

The film "Schism" by Raed Al-Saeed, 33, is a little over six minutes in length and can be viewed on the Internet video portal YouTube. The film takes verses from the Bible promoting violence, killing and war and intersperses them with provocative images.

Provocative images take out of context. But what do you expect?

At the end of his film, Al-Saeed draws a parallel between his film and that of Wilders. The penultimate screen image reads: "It is easy to take parts of any Holy (sic) book that are out of content (sic) and make it sound like the most inhuman book ever written. That is what Geert Wilders did to gather more supporters to his hateful ideology. To create schism."

Thanks to Ace for the link.

Fitna Released

Looks like the long wait for Fitna is finally over.

Seething to begin in 3...2...1...

H/T ROPMA at LGF.

Update: I watched it through a couple of times. Some very gruesome images, but very well done and undeniable and irrefutable evidence that we're dealing with a death cult.

More reaction from Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Jawa Report, snapped shot, A Blog For All, Ace of Spades

Update: Wow, a major screw-up by Wilders.

'It Is a Very Bad Example to People to Let Him Say Whatever He Wants'

The sad thing about these folks is Geert Wilders is speaking up while he still has the chance.

Those wetting their pants over his film just aid and abet the enemies of freedom of speech.

Ironic how they trash him, yet would willingly deny him the right to speak

About one thousand people protested in central Amsterdam on Saturday against right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders and the imminent release of his film expected to be critical of the Koran.

Anti-racism protesters clad in winter clothing against the freezing cold and drizzling rain held placards that said "Enough is enough" and "Stop the witch-hunt against Muslims".

Pop and hip-hop groups entertained the crowd in between speeches by social groups.

"We can no longer remain silent. There is a climate of hate and fear in the Netherlands," said spokesman Rene Danen from anti-racism organisation Nederland Bekent Kleur (the Netherlands recognises colour differences), which had organised the protest.

There should be restrictions on what Wilders can say, said Rieke, a 61-year-old Amsterdam arts teacher who declined to give her last name.

"I think it is embarrassing what Wilders says, for example about tearing up the Koran. It is a very bad example to people to let him say whatever he wants," she said.

Wilders' film has already triggered fury in the Muslim world. The Dutch government has distanced itself from his views, fearing a backlash against the country amongst Muslims similar to that against Denmark in 2006 after newspapers there published the Prophet Mohammad cartoons.

Wilders, who has given few details about his 15-minute film, has said he plans to release "Fitna" on the Internet before the end of the month after Dutch broadcasters declined to show it. Fitna is a Koranic term sometimes translated as "strife".

"The film is not so much about Muslims as about the Koran and Islam. The Islamic ideology has as its utmost goal the destruction of what is most dear to us, our freedom," he wrote in a commentary in Dutch daily De Volkskrant on Saturday.

"Fitna is the last warning for the West. The fight for freedom has only just begun," he said.

Just wish he'd show the film already, although maybe it's just a big tease to make a point.

Dutch film wins award at Egyptian Film Festival

Well, not the one by Geert Wilders, that;s for sure, but still a Dutch film won an award at The International Cairo Film Festival

The International Cairo Film Festival jury awarded a children's short, "Doggie" the Golden Cairo for Short Features, less than two weeks after banning Dutch entries because of far-right politician Geert Wilders' film, which portrays the Koran as a "fascist book."

I don't have a clue what the film is about and the rest of the story just delves into the "Fitna" controversy and makes mention of the arrest of two suspects who apparentely planning to kill the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

Westergaard to Dutch: Show the Wilders Film Or Commit Political Suicide

You've really got to admire Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. He started the whole Mohammad cartoon dustup which still has the practitioners of peace burning things every Friday, and today he ups the ante by telling Dutch politicians to man up and show the Geert Wilders film Fitna.

Westergaard has a set of stones on him and should be a role model for politicians of all stripes in the Western world. Too bad most of them are feckless, craven wimps.

The Danish cartoonist behind controversial images of the Prophet Mohammad has urged a Dutch right-wing politician to broadcast a film expected to be critical of the Koran despite fears it might spark violence.

Kurt Westergaard is the author of a series of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed including one showing him with a bomb as a turban which triggered riots in the Muslim world and a boycott of Danish products when they were published in 2006.

Fearing a similar backlash against the Netherlands, the Dutch government has urged politician Geert Wilders not to broadcast a film he has made about the Koran, distancing itself from his views and considering a possible ban.

Westergaard told the Dutch Volkskrant daily on Monday no Danish politician would dare to suggest blocking the film.

"That would mean political suicide. A Danish politician knows that you should not limit freedom of expression. Wilders must just show his film," he said in an interview.

Wilders has given few details about his film, but he has called the Koran a "fascist" book that incites violence. Nobody except Wilders and his producers have actually seen the film.

Wilders said last week he was disappointed that no Dutch broadcaster wanted to show the movie but said he would probably launch it on March 28 at the parliament's press centre in The Hague and make it available on a special Web site.

In the latest protest against the Wilders film and the reprinting of the Prophet Mohammad cartoon, thousands of Afghan students burned Danish and Dutch flags on Sunday and threatened attacks on their troops serving with NATO in Afghanistan.

The cartoon was republished by a number of Danish papers last month to show solidarity with Westergaard after three men were arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill him.

Westergaard, who said he is about to move to a sixth hiding place and expects to need protection for the rest of his life, said he did not regret drawing the cartoons.

"In Denmark we have criticism of everything: the Queen, politicians, religion ... provoking debate is the job of the newspaper and so also of the cartoonist. Muslims have to accept that," he said.

I get the feeling Westergaard isn't going to back down.

Thanks to Hot Air for the links.

Memo to Geert Wilders: Show Us the Damn Film Already

I realize Geert Wilders is just thumbing his nose at the Islamists and all the rest of his critics about his upcoming movie Fitna. But I'm beginning to get a little impatient here.

We've been hearing about this for a couple of months now, and his tease is starting to get on my nerves. Today we see the website that will purportedly show the film is up and running, but all it shows is the cover of the Koran with the text "Allahu Akhbar". Curiously, this site announcing it removed the link. Probably getting death threats already.

You have an entire country already quivering in fear of the headchoppers, but they still want to see it.

A majority of Dutch people want an anti-Koran film made by a politician to be broadcast even though they fear it will stoke tension with Muslims and harm relations with Arab countries, a poll showed on Wednesday.

A newspaper reported on Monday that the Dutch government is looking into whether it could ban the film by right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, but given few details about his movie.

He has also called the Koran a "fascist" book that incites violence and said it should be banned.

Let's stop the slow tease and show it.

Good News: Wilders Film Almost Ready

You think the cartoon jihad was bad? Wait until you see the meltdown over the upcoming film by Geert Wilders.

A politician making an anti-Koran film that has stirred Muslim outrage, brought him death threats and alarmed the Dutch government said on Wednesday the movie would be finished this week.

Geert Wilders has given few details about the content of his film "Fitna", other than saying that in it he intends to present his views about the Koran. In the past he has called for the Koran to be banned and likened it to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

He said talks with Dutch broadcasters would begin next week over the screening of "Fitna", an Arabic term used in the Koran and sometimes translated as "strife".

At the same time as the film is televised it will also be made available on a special internet site www.fitnathemovie.com, intended to skirt any restrictions on access.

"It is very good news. The film will definitely be finished this week, that is to say before March 1," Wilders told Reuters.

The project has sparked street protests as far afield as Indonesia.

Pakistan's upper house of parliament adopted a resolution this week condemning efforts to denigrate Islam and promote hatred, referring to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad first published in Danish newspapers in 2005 and to Wilders' film.

Turkey has voiced concern about the film, and the Iranian government called it a "provocative and Satanic" act.

Several films purporting to be Wilders' 15-minute film have appeared on the YouTube Web site. Access to the site was disrupted around the world last weekend after Pakistani Internet service providers tried to prevent local users from seeing them.

These maniacs haven't seen a second of footage and are freaking out already.

Expect a total meltdown by Friday, the Muslim Day of Perpetual Rage.

Dutch Muslims have said they want to open mosques on the day Fitna is screened to demonstrate tolerance and diffuse tension.

Tolerance? I didn't know that word was in their vocabulary.