Geert Wilders Speech On Negative Freedom: Full Transcript Of Trial Address
GEERT Wilders is charged with racial hate and discrimination for making comments about Islam. Wilder’s is the leader of Holland’s Party for Freedom. Is his brand of freedom, freedom to do or freedom from? Is it postive freedom or negative freedom?
Wilders is against Islam. All of it. He wants to ban the Koran in the Nertherlands. He wants to ban Islamic items of clothing. In October, 2011, he said the Koran was like Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”.
In October 2011, his trial began for “inciting hatred and discrimination” against Muslims. That trial has now come to an end. Wilders made a speech. He says freedom of expression was also on trial
This is what he said:
Mister President, members of the Court,
I am here because of what I have said. I am here for having spoken. I have spoken, I speak and I shall continue to speak. Many have kept silent, but not Pim Fortuyn, not Theo Van Gogh, and not me.
I am obliged to speak. For the Netherlands is under threat of Islam. As I have argued many times, Islam is chiefly an ideology. An ideology of hatred, of destruction, of conquest. It is my strong conviction that Islam is a threat to Western values, to freedom of speech, to the equality of men and women, of heterosexuals and homosexuals, of believers and unbelievers.
All over the world we can see how freedom is fleeing from Islam. Day by day we see our freedoms dwindle…
That is why I have spoken, why I speak and why I shall continue to speak.
The statements for which I am being tried are statements which I made in my function as a politician participating in the public debate in our society. My statements were not aimed at individuals, but at Islam and the process of Islamization…
I am acting within a long tradition which I wish to honor. I am risking my life in defence of freedom in the Netherlands. Of all our achievements, freedom is the most precious and the most vulnerable. Many have given their lives for freedom….
Every day the armored cars drive me past the statue of Johan de Witt at the Hofvijver in The Hague. De Witt wrote the “Manifesto of True Freedom” and he paid for freedom with his life…
I do not wish to betray the trust of the 1.5 million voters of my party. I do not wish to betray my country…. I wish to be a politician who serves the truth end hence defends the freedom of the Dutch provinces and of the Dutch people. I wish to be honest, I wish to act with honesty and that is why I wish to protect my native land against Islam. Silence is treason.
That is why I have spoken, why I speak and why I shall continue to speak.
Freedom and truth. I pay the price every day. Day and night I have to be protected against people who want to kill me. I am not complaining about it; it has been my own decision to speak. However, those who threaten me and other critics of Islam are not being tried here today. I am being tried. And about that I do complain.
I consider this trial to be a political trial. The values of D66 [a Dutch leftist liberal party] and NRC Handelsblad [a Dutch leftist liberal party] will never be brought before a judge in this country… Those on the Left like to tamper with the separation of powers. When they cannot win politically because the Dutch people have discerned their sinister agenda, they try to win through the courts.
Whatever your verdict may be, that is the bitter conclusion of this trial.
This trial is also surrealistic. I am being compared with the Hutu murderers in Rwanda and with Mladic. Only a few minutes ago some here have doubted my mental health. I have been called a new Hitler. I wonder whether those who call me such names will also be sued, and if not, whether the Court will also order prosecution. Probably not. And that is just as well. Because freedom of speech applies also to my opponents…
Acquit me. Political freedom requires that citizens and their elected representatives are allowed to voice opinions that are held in society.
Acquit me, for if I am convicted, you convict the freedom of opinion and expression of millions of Dutchmen.
Acquit me. I do not incite to hatred. I do not incite to discrimination. But I defend the character, the identity, the culture and the freedom of the Netherlands. That is the truth. That is why I am here. That is why I speak. That is why, like Luther before the Imperial Diet at Worms, I say: “Here I stand, I can do no other.”…
Mister President, members of the Court, though I stand here alone, my voice is the voice of many. This trial is not about me. It is about something much greater. Freedom of expression is the life source of our Western civilisation….
Mister President, members of the Court, you have a great responsibility. Do not cut freedom in the Netherlands from its roots, our freedom of expression. Acquit me. Choose freedom.
The verdict will be made on June 23.
We make one point only: If you don’t like hatred, destruction and conquest, don’t invade foreign countries in the name of corporate colonialism and imperialism. You’ll only moan when The Other wants to come ‘home’…
Posted: 2nd, June 2011 | In: Politicians Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
