Fighting the Good Fight

Gert Wilders. If you don't know who he is, you should. He is a dutch politician who is lucky to still be alive. He brings us a message of warning.

From the WSJ:

In March, Mr. Wilders released a short film called "Fitna," a harsh treatment of Islam that begins by interspersing inflammatory Quran passages with newspaper and TV clips depicting threats and acts of violent jihad. The second half of the film, titled "The Netherlands Under the Spell of Islam," warns that Holland's growing Muslim population -- which more than doubled between 1990 and 2004, to 944,000.

Wilders makes the distinction between those Muslims that live their lives peaceably and those who commit terrorism, but he insists that we must face and fight the radical ideology of Islam. Why are we tolerant of those who commit genital mutilation and honor killings? The treatment of women alone should have us all howling, but few Americans have seen "Fitna" because the only one brave enough to air it was LiveLeak and they pulled it over death threats, but later must have realized how this went against free speech in this country, and put it back up.

Being tolerant of a different religion does not mean that we are tolerant of the evil that happens under it's influence. They torture and hang gay people in Iran. They perform genital mutilation on young women throughout the Middle East. Where are the gay and feminist activists? Where are the liberal activists in general? Why do radical Muslims get a free ride from them?

In November 2004, Theo van Gogh was assassinated on an Amsterdam street in retaliation for directing a film called "Submission" about Islam's treatment of women. Wilder realizes he lives in danger every day. But the bottom line for him is that we acknowledge that all cultures are not equal. We are better because of our freedom. We are better because we don't allow hanging or mutilation or honor killings on women. There are many things we could do better. We are not a perfect society by a long shot.

But we are better. And we better start fighting for our culture. We think that we ignore what goes on in Europe. We think it won't affect us. But we are wrong if we believe that. A dark cloud grows in Europe and sooner or later we will feel it's presence here.

h/t BigDog