Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Ban the Koran in the Netherlands

“We have to stop making concessions.”

A Dutch reader who calls himself Mr. Resident sent us the following email this morning:

Ban the Koran!Subject: The Dutch Beat the Danes!

Dear Gates of Vienna,

I follow the news about my country closely, as well as your blog. I think I have a piece that might astound you. You may think the Danes had a problem over the cartoons. But wait and read this. I think the Dutch outmatched the Danes quite a bit here. The following is a translation of a Dutch left-wing newspaper, De Volkskrant. All newspapers however publish similar on their front pages.

Mr. Resident included his translation of the article in today’s De Volkskrant:

Wilders: Ban the Koran, also in mosques

by our reporter Sara Berkeljon

Geert WildersAmsterdam — Geert Wilders wants to ban the Koran. The leader of the Party for Liberty wrote this today in De Volkskrant. The politician compared the Islamic holy scripture with Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. That book has been censored in The Netherlands since the end of World War Two; it cannot be sold in the country. Wilders, about the Koran: “Ban that cursed book, just as Mein Kampf is banned!”

The comparison with the national-socialist book need not be quite the same, explained Wilder by telephone. Mein Kampf may be used in universities, the possession f the book is not illegal, and one can read this book in some public libraries.
- - - - - - - - - -
The Koran as material to be studied in Dutch universities should be allowed, but that would also be the limit: “So, not only sale of the Koran, but also the use in mosques and the possession in private homes should be punishable by law. If that is not possible within the present law, we should change that law.”

The politician wants to send a message to radical Muslims who use the Koran to legitimate violence and hatred. As an example he pointed to the attackers of Ehsan Jami. They assaulted the chairman for the committee of Muslim apostates, possibly for his outspoken views about the Islam. According to Wilders, the culprits found their excuse in the Koran to beat up Mr. Jami.

Enough is enough, writes the faction leader. After his statement about a tsunami of Muslims entering the country during the elections, after his pleas for a ban on building mosques as well as for a complete ban on burkhas, the politician aims his arrows now at the Koran: “A book of fascism,” according to Wilders.

It is unlikely he will find a majority in the House, realizes the leader of the Party for Liberty. “Unfortunately, most of our proposals are often denied by a 141 to 9 majority. However, if that mattered to us, we’d better stop our party altogether. This book encourages murder and hatred, and therefore does not fit within our society. If Muslims want to participate in our society, they have to distance themselves from this Koran. I can see that would be too much to ask for, but we have to stop making concessions.”

21 comments:

History Snark said...

Banning books? No way. I do agree it should be viewed like Mein Kampf, as a book to study in order to see where evil comes from.

Conservative Swede said...

My suggestion is that it should be forbidden to own in Arabic, but not in other languages.

Yankee Doodle said...

I appreciate the sentiments behind the proposal, but as a matter of principle, I am against banning books.

Now, if wanted to be slick about this, instead of banning the books, maybe they could try keeping an eye on anyone seen with a copy. ;)

Interesting post!

Simon de Montfort said...

Dutch law bans "hate speech"

The Koran is hate speech

ipso facto, the Koran should be banned.

Okay, problem solved. Next.......

No? As a compromise, how about a 'warning label' on all copies of the Koran? We are told on the various mandatory labels how the contents might harm us. The contents of the Koran are as Potentially Lethal as chemical additives..........

OMMAG said...

Books are not the problem and never were! This idea of Wilders is a chickenshit bureaucrats response to being threatened.

As the years go by I still remain convinced that in most western nations the laws covering sedition can and should be applied to anyone who uses a public forum to incite illegal and treasonous behaviour against the laws and citizens of a state.
Like a gun ... All it takes is the guts to use it!
Aim and pull the damned trigger already.

Subvet said...

Hope Wilder has a well armed contingent of security guards around him 24/7. He's gonna need 'em!

rickl said...

I agree with PGP. Why are Western leaders not using sedition and treason laws aggressively? What will it take to get them to do that?

Unknown said...

Because actual western leaders are traidors who sold us for oil. Lucky enough they dont use sedition and treason laws againt us.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the folks above who said no to banning the Koran or any other books. Info should never be banned.

What should be banned (along with widespread immigration from 3rd world countries) is cousin marriage (specifically amongst immigrant groups that come from countries where cousin marriage is common).

Read these to understand the HUGE, negative consequences of (large-scale) cousin marriage:

"Cousin Marriage Conundrum - The ancient practice discourages democratic nation-building"
by Steve Sailer
http://www.isteve.com/cousin_marriage_conundrum.htm

"Euro-Muslims and Cousin Marriage"
by Steve Sailer
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/11/euro-muslims-and-cousin-marriage.html

Failure To Understand Cousin Marriage Blinds Policy Makers On Iraq
by Randall Parker
http://www.parapundit.com/archives/003985.html

Panday said...

No one's said yet- does Wilders have a snowball's chance of getting this law passed?

mikej said...

This is puzzling. How can Mein Kampf (which I've never read, by the way) be used in Dutch universities if it can't be sold in the Netherlands? At American universities, students buy their books.

Presumably the country has laws against assault and battery, I doubt that the "excuse" for the beating of Ehsan Jami was considered a valid legal excuse, whatever book might have been its source.

If the aim is to discourage Muslim immigration, and immigration from the third world in general, abolishing the welfare system would prove more effective.

History Snark said...

Gringo,

I would guess the book is either made available *only* to student bookstores, and enrolled students. Or, (and I saw this on a small scale in my student days) they keep copies at the school, and issue them to students for the course- kind of on a sign-out basis.

But still, I don't even see why the book is outlawed. To my mind, get it out there and let people read it. It's long, dull, and full of garbage.

anonym said...

Ahhh. The Leader of the People's Party For Freedom and democracy deciding what people are allowed to read and what not to read. The sweet irony.

Jason Pappas said...

We have to be able to buy and read Mein Kampf, the Communist Manifesto, and the Koran.

But given that European countries do have thresholds for publication and the Koran clearly fails to meet a minimal level of decency, let me offer a compromise. Allow the Koran if it is bound in leather -- pigskin, to be exact. Hey, I'm a liberal guy.

mikej said...

In an excellent column entitled, "If pigs could fly... ," Paul Sperry made similar suggestions to the one made by Jason Pappas above, but for airlines. Unfortunately, Sperry's suggestions have been ignored, and airport security has focused on harassing innocuous Americans.

Swank Chambers said...

gun-totin-wacko:

I agree with you that the best defense against this kind of hateful crap is plenty of sunshine. However, consider:

Most of The Netherlands is comprised of rows of tidy brick buildings somewhere between two and eight hundred years old, A notable exception is Rotterdam, where almost every structure is less than sixty years old. This is because the Nazi's flattened it, basically out of spite, after their Dutch cousins refused to participate in the Aryan dream.

The Dutch have banned Mein Kampf for much the same reason France doesn't allow the sale of Nazi memorabilia. It probably hurts to look at.

(In fact, when visiting Holland one mustn't refer to one's hosts - especially those over, say, fifty - as "dutch". When spoken by an anglo, this sounds too much like "duits", their word for german. Best to call them Nederlanders and avoid insult.)

Yorkshireminer said...

First of all Geert has nothing to lose, he has had over 600 death threats and is permantly guarded. I find it disgusting that he has to have an armed guard when he goes for a piss in the Dutch parliament building. He gets very little reporting in fact in the MSM so parliament is a great arena to get his views across and keep himself and his party in front of the Dutch electorate. I think his party have asked more parliamentary questions than all the other parties combined since the beginning of the new parliament. His party is very small only having 9 members expect a few more at the next general election. He wont succeed in getting the koran banned and he knows it, but it keeps his party and its aim in front of the Dutch electorate and embarrasses the government at the same time.

Here by the way is a translation of one of his articles from his website. I translated it a couple of months ago. He certainly knows what he is talking about and Robert even gets a honorable mention. Please enjoy.


Mohammed is alive and Well

The Prophet Mohammed had at least nine wives at the same time. He married thirteen. The Youngest who he married in 622 was Aisha, who was only 6 years old, and a few years later when she was 9, he had sex with her. Marrying a 6 year old and having sex with a 9 year old is for all times reserved for the ultimate dirty old man.
According to the 8th century historian Muhammed Ibn Ishaq Ibn Yassar, the Prophet Mohammed was involved in at least 27 aggressive and bloody wars. He allowed 700 Jews to beheaded at the same time, and had slaves over. All false heroics, to my regret Mohammed was a perverse man, and an aggressive warlord, his Koran, a violent book and the pure Islam is up to the present day an example of expansionism and intolerance, with the latent potential to be the cause of the next world war.
The prophet Mohammed died in the year 632 in Medina 63 years old. But that was not the end, Mohammed and his Islam is still very much alive. 1.3 billion people on this earth are muslim, and the struggle continues. Islamo fascism continues to grow and also in Nederland we see, as in other parts of the West, a further radicalization of groups of Muslims, of they now come from Moroccan or Turkish background . Samir A and Mohammed B. as an example are according to themselves the true Muslims. Yet today the Imam of the Assoenna Mosque in Amsterdam wants a cabaret artist killed because of his jokes about Islam. The tsunami of islamisation is a direct threat for the continuation of the world we know, and is the beginning of the end of western norms and values such as freedom, equality, tolerance and the separation of church and state that we so rightly cherish.
It is not a question of centuries that the Eurabia of the British writer Bat Ye”or becomes reality, and those who would like to read a a realistic description of the true face of the barbaric prophet Mohammed is the recently published book by Robert Spencer “The Truth about Muhammed” an absolute must.
The question that remains is why the west is still blinded by an almost suicidal political correctness. Why do naive cultural relativists decide that they don't dare say that the islamitic culture is worse than our own, that the western culture based upon Christian Jewish and humanistic values is still the political agenda. Why do left wing quasi intellectual journalists from papers such as NCR in a disgusting spiritual witch hunt, a honest political party as mine, who state the facts and offer a solution constantly force us into the extream right corner.
Because the frightened Dimmi's will not recognize the truth. Because they are frightened to recognize that the pure Islam and its radicalization, which grows like cabbage, forms a direct threat for the West, Europe and Nederland. Because to recognize this truth would lead to measures such as an immediate immigration stop for muslims and an effort for their rapid re-emigration.
The European and Dutch body politic is cowardly. Islam will, by the continuation of our present neglect, conqueror and control the West. But that will not happen as long as I have anything to say about it.

Yorkshireminer said...

Dear Swank Chambers,
How true, my Dutch father-in-law was a fairly young man when the front line stabilized just about a mile from the village where we live in late 1944. He lived just behind the German front line and lived in a cellar for about 3months with a platoon of Germans suffering first from being bombarded first by the Americans and then by the British. When the front moved on, he and his father came up out of the cellar of their farm. His father told him to start cleaning up the mess. He started to collect all the guns and amunition and pile it in one place. While walking along the road with a couple of guns he had found he was stopped by a British officer who asked if he was Dutch, he thought he asked him if he was Duits German. He of cause denied it and said NO NO. he was immediately arrested and spent two days in prison. It took his Dad that long to get him out. We laugh about it now over a glass of whiskey.

History Snark said...

Y-M,

You're right, of course. It is a nice way to get publicity, which all politicians want. I had that thought as well, but you actually said it.

The excerpt you translated doesn't sound too bad. Not a guy that would be out of place in this forum, though I almost tend to disagree with him when he says that the Left doesn't recognize the truth- I wonder if it isn't just a belief that ANY civilization/culture is better than the horrible one we've created (in their minds).

My father once had an experience somewhat like your father in law. He's a native of Italy, and lived in Detroit, which is just across the border from Canada. He and his friends went across the river one day, and he casually decided not to lie about his birthplace, as he usually did. So they asked him where he was born, and he said "Italy". He was stopped, and refused access back into the US, until his father could come and bring the paperwork showing he who he was. My grandfather's comment was "that'll teach you, you donkey".

Imagine what it would be like if he tried that now, instead of 50-60 years ago...

No Dhimmi said...

Wilders is right. The Koran clearly constitutes "hate speech," and we know what European nations can do to those convicted of "hate speech."

Check out this frightening site:

The Truth About Islam
http://islamwatchers.blogspot.com

Abu Abdullah said...

A full English translation of Wilders' op-ed is available here.