Geert Wilders' Party Explodes after Expulsion

From CBN News
By Dale Hurd

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Critics say the freedom to criticize Islam in Europe has been put in jeopardy after Dutch politician Geert Wilders was banned last week from entering Britain because of his attacks on Islam.

But while the controversial politician may have failed to enter the United Kingdom, the Dutch public has rallied around Wilders, and support for his party has exploded.

His party, the Party for Freedom, is now the second largest party in the Netherlands, based on recent polling. It's a stunning political development.

Wilders, like him or not, has a two fold mission. One is to sound the alarm bells about the spread of Islam in Europe, and the other is to show how far he thinks western governments have gone in appeasing radical Islam.

Hurd: Why do you think support for your party has surged?

Wilders: Common people in many cities in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and there are many smaller cities and villages, see that their country is changing, see that the influence of Islam and Islamization is growing, and they don't like that.

They are not xenophobes. They are not racist. They do not hate Muslims. But they feel that their own culture, based on Christianity, Judaism, and humanism is something to fight for.

Hurd: What does your not being allowed in the United Kingdom prove, if anything?

Wilders: It proves that the influence of Islam in Western European countries is huge.

Wilders still faces trial in the Netherlands for hate speech. But his political stock continues to grow.

The speech that Britain's Labour Party would not permit to be heard.

Europe's War On Free Speech

From The Brussels Journal
By Soeren Kern

The Amsterdam Court of Appeals has ordered the criminal prosecution of a Dutch Member of Parliament for criticizing Islam. The court’s ruling overturns a previous decision by Dutch public prosecutors, who had determined that there was not enough evidence to charge Geert Wilders, leader of the conservative Freedom Party, for hate crimes after he produced a hard-hitting film that says Islam promotes violence. In a written judgment, the appeals court said that “by attacking the symbols of the Muslim religion, [Wilders] also insulted Muslim believers.”

The ruling will please the Dutch Muslim immigrant groups who asked the appeals court to force the justice department to prosecute Wilders for expressing his opinions. But many others say the prosecution is an alarming attack on free speech by politically correct activist judges who are trying to silence criticism of the growing power of Islam in Europe.

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