Standing for Freedom in Berlin

The important events in Berlin this weekend didn’t end with yesterday’s speech by Geert Wilders. Today is the twentieth anniversary of German Reunification, and Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa used the occasion to stage a demonstration against Islamization at Potsdamer Platz.

Once again a number of members of the Counterjihad Collective were present at the event. As you can see from the photo at the top, our own Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff and Henrik Ræder Clausen were there, and Elisabeth was one of the speakers.

Another speaker was the French activist Gandalf of VV&D and The Alliance to Stop Sharia (also known as Gandalf the Younger, to distinguish him from Gandalf the Elder in the UK). He can be seen in the photo at right.

Henrik has posted a report at Europe News with the rest of the photos (eighteen in all). His text is reposted below with his permission, but you will want to check out the full report to see the rest of the photos.


Standing for Freedom in Berlin

On the German Reunification Day October 3rd, Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa (“Citizens Movement Pax Europa”, BPE) held a demonstration on Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, for freedom of expression, freedom to criticize religion, against totalitarian ideologies at large, and against political Islam in particular. This report will focus on the messages conveyed by banners and flags. BPE will post video recordings of the speeches.

Demonstration [Photo 1]

For security reasons — Antifa is quite a force in Berlin — the exact location of the demonstration had been moved twice, and the German police was out in force — probably a hundred — to protect the demonstration. Some 150 Germans, Jews and guests from neighbouring countries were present. Playing a bit of Beethovens’ 9th Sympony, Ode an der Freude, marked the opening of the event.

Setting the stage [Photo 2]

BPE had build a stage for the speakers, with a powerful sound amplification system for an interesting list of speakers, German as well as foreign:

• Marc Doll: Die Freiheit, the new German political party
  
• Michael Mannheimer: MichaelMannheimer.com
  
• Armando: Una via per Oriana, Italy
  
• Gandalf: Stop Shariah Alliance, France
  
• Willie Schwend: Moderator, chairman of BPE
  
• Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff: BPE member, Austria

Flags of Israel were particular encouraged, and it was sought to decorate the stage with both flags. But there was not space for both flags and the BPE banner, and the flags had to be moved elsewhere.

Main BPE Banner [Photo 3]

The banner text reads:

Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, said:

“Whoever changes his religion [away from Islam], kill him!”

Is this command still valid today?

This is a valid concern. Capital punishment for apostacy is an obvious affront to freedom of religion, yet Islamic leaders are rarely confronted with this question. That is a shame, for it is very easy to respond to it: Either the traditional command has been authoratively abolished, or it is still in force. If the latter is the case, Islam is not compatible with Universal Human Rights, does not respect freedom of conscience, and — as is the case in Italy — should be considered a political system rather than a religion. For Islam to be considered a religion, this is one of the political aspects that must be abolished, through the authority of reform-minded Islamic leaders.

Potsdamer Platz holds a particular significance in Germany, for the infamous Berlin Wall ran right through this square until 1989. Holding a demonstration in this place, on the 20th anniversary of German reunion, speaks very directly to Germans.

Freedom will Dominate the World! [Photo 4]

This is a response to the well-known sign held by an Islamic demonstrator in London: “Islam will dominate the world”. That open declaration of the political ambitions of Islam has provoked many reactions, yet unfortunately not the clear condemnation from Islamic leaders one would expect in case Islam was merely a faith system void of political contents.

Criticism is no crime [Photo 5]

The banner reads:

Criticism of Islam is a human right — not a criminal offense

While this to most people might sound too obvious to even mention, it isn’t. The OIC is actively working the so-called “Human Rights Committee” of the United Nations to equate criticism of religion (read: “Islam”) with racism. Not only is this an open affront to the ideals that the UN was founded to defend, it is also a legal reality today:

Geert Wilders is charged with “Inciting hatred” for requesting the racist passages of the Quran to be discarded, and today’s top speaker, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, is facing a similar charge for teaching politicians about the dangers that political Islam poses to Western democracies. In a free society, there must be freedom to criticize religion, and religious authority in particular.

Two more posters [Photo 6]

The small poster with Geert Wilders reads:

Freedom of expression is a fundamental right

Solidarity with Geert Wilders!

As above, Geert Wilders is facing a court case this very month for requesting racist and violent passages of the Quran to be discarded, and for stating that the general content of the Quran is of a kind that should cause it to be banned under the same law that has banned “Mein Kampf” in the Netherlands. Pointing out this inequality in application of Dutch law has provoked much anger in his country, but the obvious solution — abolishing the law that outlaws hate speech books — has no support in the Dutch parliament. Punishing Wilders is a preferred solution in the Dutch establishment.

The larger poster carries quotes from the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan:

“There is no moderate Islam. Islam is Islam, period. Saying otherwise is an insult to Islam.”

“Integration is a crime against humanity.”

These statements from a supposedly ‘moderate’ Islamic leader should have caused alarm in Germany, as well as in the European Union, where it is expected that Turkey within a few years will transform itself into a European country with respect for minorities, freedom of expression and solid separation between Islam and politics. In reality the development has gone systematically in the opposite direction, a fact easily observable for everyone without vested interests in making Turkey a part of the European Union.

The first quote concerns the question of Islam being a religion or a political ideology. Since the Islamist leader Erdogan rejects the very notion of discriminating between ‘fundamentalist’, ‘moderate’ or ‘freedom-compliant’ Islam, there really isn’t reason to consider Islam anything but a political ideology. As is well known, that ideology is totalitarian, as is recognized by most when calling it by its other name, Shariah. The 1990 “Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam” spells this out clearly in Articles 24 and 25: Any concept of ‘human rights’ is secondary to Shariah.

The second quote is from a speech Erdogan held in Cologne in 2008, in a reaction to a fire in Ludwigshafen, where several Germans of Turkish origin died. Erdogan strongly desired this fire to be arson, and an expression of German racism. It wasn’t — it was a consequence of illicit wiring bypassing the electric meter in the house — but nevertheless Erdogan took the opportunity to tell Turks in Germany not to integrate, to keep their Turkish identity, and has he has previously said in pan-Turkish congresses: The Turkish diaspora has a very special role to play. It is obvious that the German Verfassungschutz should monitor each and every Turkish organisation for subersive activity.

Note: Erdogan is actually Prime Minister, not President, of Turkey.

Another two banners [Photo 7]

The banner to the left reads:

Criticism of Islam is NOT racism! For freedom of expression!

Islamic leaders, who have vested interests in upholding their religious authority, have observed that in the West, we are very much opposed to racism. That is being exploited to protect Islam against relevant criticism, and for unknown reasons, many leftwing politicians and activists are playing along with that ploy. It is even more suprising as the left used to be very critical against Christianity, using every opportunity to undermine the Catholic Church and Christian dogma, and used to fight for equal rights for women, against racism and for absolute freedom of expression.

A similar critical attitude against Islam is only rarely found among leftwing intellectuals today, they prefer instead to ‘defend the oppressed minorities’ against the right, who now are the leaders in upholding freedom of the individual against the intimidation from reactionary religious circles. How times have changed!

The second banner reads:

Being against fascism also means being against Islamic supremacism

Again one of those messages that should be obvious, but isn’t. The Quran contains hundreds of statements condemning those of different opinion or disobidient to the absolute auhority of Muhammd (‘kafirs’, ‘hypocrites’ and not least Jews), yet few have the courage to confront Islamic leaders with these rather glaring similarities. To compare, the Quran contains over twice as many anti-semitic statements as does Mein Kampf, hundreds of derogative statements against ‘infidels’, but still the book is not taken to task for this, nor banned in the Netherlands as seems right.

Thus, anyone speaking or acting against ‘fasiscm’ really should tackle Islamic fascism first.

[Photo 8]

The banner reads:

Stop the Islamisation of Europe

www.pi-news.net, largest political blog in Germany

Leaders at the European Union level have a very simple response to the problem of Islamisation of our societies: They have declared that no such thing is happening. While it may seem so from their mighty palaces of glass and steel in Brussels and Strasbourg, the reality on the ground is different. More or less formalized Shariah courts are already operative in several European countries, and the intimidation against Muslims not submitting to this altenative system of ‘justice’ is increasing. Many would consider it treason to establish private, religous courts in this way, yet our ‘responsible’ politicians do not react in force to this organized undermining of secular, Western law.

Politically Incorrect is becoming a political force in Germany. Moving from being an Islam-critical blog, PI is now establishing chapters in major German cities and organicing demonstrations and other major events, like the meeting with Geert Wilders in Berlin on October 2nd. They were sharing the work with BPE to set up the demonstration on Sunday as well.

[Photo 9]

The banner, which was posted on the stage, reads:

The Alliance says: STOP the Shariah!

This is an international French initiative to coordinate resistance to Shariah law in our societies. The banner was fresh off the printer and was on public display for the first time. BPE is participating in the Alliance, as is PI and an increasing number of other organisations. The logo is a pause button, as known from video players — indicating that we want to stop the drift towards Shariah in our societies, and we want to do that now,.

[Photo 10]

This is Gandalf, the chairman and main coordinator of the Stop Shariah Alliance. He spoke about the purpose and approach of the Alliance, and pointed out that Islam without Shariah — a system of faith — is not a challenge to freedom and democracy, only the (forced) implementation of Shariah is. If Islamic leaders would reject Shariah, Islam could easily be accepted along with the other world religions that have no aim of dominating the world.

[Photo 11]

As expected at any political meeting, Antifa were out scouting. This group of leftwing extremists have made it clear on many occasions that they will not tolerate views too different from their own, and have in many cases used blocades and physical violence to prevent their political opponents from speaking freely and present their views.

At today’s BPE demonstration, three Antifa-style youngsters appeared. They went around a bit, looked at the flags and banners, took pictures of the participants, but soon slipped away into the underground without causing trouble. The visibly strong police presence probably contributed to their decision, but the lack of racists or national socialists to attack must have been demotivating.

One might think that they could even join the demonstration, to stand for freedom of the citizens and for democracy against religous fascism, but that was apparently not in their interest, or possibly they disliked the many Israeli flags on display.

[Photo 12]: Flag of Israel

For the flag of Israel was flying high over the demonstration, and Jews showed up to show their agreement with the purpose of BPE. There were more Israeli than German flags — a testament to Germans still not being free of national shame — and the open support for Israel, as a European forepost in the Middle East, was to the liking of everyone. Is a certain cure to keep national socialists away, too.

[Photo 13]

Several participants were draped in the flag of Israel, keeping the chilly wind somewhat at bay. Here among two posters, the first of which reads:

No blood for oil! — but: Islam for oil?

This indicates that the European leaders might have a tacit agreement with Arab leaders, that in order to get oil at manageable prices, we have to accept their sponsorship of Islam in our continent. That may not be a problem for our political leaders, but if one looks at the living conditions in Islamic countries, this looks very much like a bum deal. Bat Ye’or had described the problem in detail in her famous book Eurabia.

The second banner, Freedom will dominate the world!, was described in detail above.

[Photo 14]

Another Israeli flag, along with one of the few German flags. This one has written on it:

Thank you, Thilo!? PI-News.net

This is a reference to a lone demonstrator holding up a poster: “Danke, Thilo” (“Thank you, Thilo”), as a message to Thilo Sarrazin for his recent book “Deutschland shafft sich ab” (“Germany abolishes itself”). Thilo Sarrazin was fired from his job at the German National Bank for his book, nad the Social Democrats have been working feverishly to find a way to exclude him from the party. Interestingly, Islamist leaders who openly declare their intention to abolish Germany and implement Islamic rule face no similar sanctions. One wonders who the politicians are really working for…

[Photo 15]

Marc Doll, one of the founders of the new party “Die Freiheit” (Freedom) was speaking, and could be seen holding an Israeli flag when listening.

[Photo 16]

The main speaker of the day, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, along with your EuropeNews reporter Henrik R. Clausen. Shiny and joyful day!

[Photo 17]

As mentioned, the main speaker of the day was Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff from Austria, who is facing ‘hate speech’ charges for teaching politicans about the dangers of political Islam. She spoke about the strange twist of fate that our laws are being turned against us under the threat of Islamic problems, and ridiculed the left-wing accusations of being ‘right-wing’ by quoting the Danish comedian and Islami-critic Farshad Kholghi:

“Is it right’-wing’ to stand for womens’ rights? Is it ‘right-wing’ to criticize religion? Is it ‘right-wing’ to defend freedom of expression? Is it ‘right-wing’ to defend the right of the individual over that of the ideology? If so, then yes, I present right-wing political views.”

[Photo 18]

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff rounded off the speakers list, and the demonstration was over in good order, without any trouble. The demonstration ended, as it started, with playing a bit of Beethovens 9th Symphony. We thanked the police for ample protection and went out into Berlin for a cup of coffee in the afternoon sun.