The BBC reported this evening that Dutch MP Geert Wilders has been banned from entering the United Kingdom. Mr Wilders, who heads up the Freedom party PVV, gained prominence in March 2008 through the publication of a 15-minute video called Fitna. Fitna is an Arabic word, translated as strife in some instances. The film has been put on the Internet, and was due to be shown to the House of Lords by Mr Wilders.
He has now been denied entry to the UK as his presence is held to be harmful to community relations. Mr Wilders faces trial in Amsterdam for inciting hatred. The Dutch government is thought to be undertaking diplomatic moves to undo the ban.
Quite frankly, this being the year 2009, we can do without the outmoded views disseminated by Mr Wilders. Muslim extremism, which peaked around the time of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, has been increasingly superseded and sidelined in countries like Iraq and even Iran. Pragmatism seems to be taking over, in spite of festering sores like Palestine / Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Wilders has gained prominence on account of problems in Dutch society surrounding migrants, integration (more to the point: lack of) and misinformation. When people holding views like his start to become popular, it is time for government and community leaders to open their eyes and check what is wrong. And fix it. Seventy-five years ago, a failed artist from Austria came to power in Germany, by promising the residents of that country a solution to their economic woes. His name was Adolf Hitler.
Reading this just made me think that I don't think our country would ban anybody regardless of what they've done.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I know about this fellow or what he's done.
The problem is how to keep out the incipient Hitlers without stifling legitimate discourse on change. Any society that cannot change, cannot grow. Yet the cancer of hate must be stemmed before it can kill the society that fosters it. To extend the analogy: the chemicals that kill cancer are specific to the fastest growing cells in the body. This is why those undergoing chemotherapy lose their hair, their bone marrow and the lining of their gastro-intestinal systems. We need to find a way to kill hate but not dissent.
ReplyDelete;^) Jan the Gryphon
http://gryph-wotd.blogspot.com/