The Geert Wilders Trial Before the Dutch Inquisition

Graphic Courtesy Gates of Vienna

“The trial against Galileo didn’t change physical reality or threaten the survival of European civilization; the forces that Wilders is warning against could indeed destroy European civilization if left unchecked.”


In 1633 the great Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was forced by the Inquisition to recant his heliocentric model of the solar system and affirm that the Earth was actually the motionless center of the Universe. Legend has it that immediately after his conviction, Galileo was heard to mutter “Eppur si muove” — “And yet it moves”. The old man was unable to restrain himself entirely from speaking the simple truth.


In Amsterdam the day after tomorrow, another great man will be hauled before a court and charged with speaking the simple truth. The outcome of the Geert Wilders trial — like Galileo’s — is fixed in advance. Mr. Wilders is indeed guilty of speaking the truth about Islam, and he will undoubtedly be convicted.


Fjordman has written a brief essay outlining the parallels between Galileo Galilei and Geert Wilders, and examines the current trial’s enormous significance for the Netherlands, the continent of Europe, and the whole of Western Civilization.

Source: Gates of Vienna (go read the essay that Fjordman has written)

Commentary

For those who have been following the Geert Wilder case, it has been oddly reminiscent of the days when the Roman Catholic Church would would go to great lengths to hunt down and shut up people who held 'heretical' differences of opinion.


Like Galileo before him, Wilders has presented evidence of something the European Establishment in general, and the Dutch in particular, refuse to see. That Islam presents a clear and present danger to Europe, and Western Civilization.


A large part of his crime involves producing the film "Fitna." Efforts by Europeans and Muslims to remove the film from the Internet were epic, but equally epic was the effort to copy and distribute the film by people who agreed with what the film exposed in manner that could be understood by all who saw it.


In solidarity with Geert Wilders, here is my copy of Fitna and a short description:







Fitna is a 2008 short film by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. Approximately 17 minutes in length, the film shows a selection of Suras from the Qur'an, interspersed with media clips and newspaper clippings showing or describing acts of violence and/or hatred by Muslims. The film wishes to demonstrate that the Qur'an, and the Islamic culture in general, motivates its followers to hate all who violate the Islamic teachings. Consequently, the film argues, Islam encourages, among others, acts of terrorism,antisemitism, violence against women, and Islamic universalism. A large part of the film deals with the influence of Islam on the Netherlands.
The film's title, "fitna", is an Arabic term used to describe "disagreement and division among people" or a "test of faith in times of trial".[1] Wilders, a prominent critic of Islam, described the film as "a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamization".[2]
On March 27 2008, Fitna was released to the Internet on the video sharing website Liveleak in Dutch and Englishversions. The following day, Liveleak removed the film from their servers, citing serious threats to their staff. On March 30, Fitna was restored on Liveleak following a security upgrade, only to be removed again shortly afterwards by Wilders himself because of copyright violations. A second edition was released later.