Dutch MP and freedom advocate Geert Wilders is finally coming to Australia. The Australian government did much to block him, and he was thus prevented from coming here last year. But this month he will (hopefully) speak in several Australian cities.
It has been an uphill battle to get him here, and those who have supported him and his right to speak have experienced plenty of PC intolerance and hate along the way. Indeed, all the grief just to get him here and to find a place that will actually allow him to speak publically indicates just how far down the tubes of dhimmitude we have travelled.
The most recent illustration of this is the last minute decision of the Sydney venue to host Wilders to pull out, with no explanation offered. That of course is a real setback, and the organisers must now frantically try to find another venue at real short notice.
A spokesperson for the sponsoring organisation said this about the matter: “The venue we had booked for the Sydney evening event has just walked away from their contract with Q Society. This came after everything was arranged for weeks, the venue knew the speaker and the NSW police had already done their site evaluation. NSW police and AFP were happy with our security arrangements and the venue. Except for a beat-up article in the local paper about the usual rent-a-crowd from the unwashed left fringe and a racist neo-Nazi outfit wanting to exchange pleasantness, everything was quiet…. We find this regrettable and shameful, a clear sign that the capitulation of civil society in Australia is much further advanced than we thought.”
It certainly is regrettable – frightening really. Sydney journalist Paul Sheehan has been following all this and has penned several pieces on this which are worth citing: “Wilders will be accompanied to Australia by five Dutch police officers. He lives under permanent 24-hour security.
“Fear has arrived here before him. On Wednesday, the organiser of the tour, Debbie Robinson, told me yet another venue had cancelled and there had been another act of corporate suppression directed at the tour. ‘This morning the venue in Sydney cancelled. There was a meltdown. The events manager at the venue was screaming. Right now we have no Sydney venue.’
“It was not her only setback. ‘Yesterday PayPal froze the funds in the account that is processing ticket sales. They will not tell me why. All staff keep saying is the account is under review. It’s been like an Orwellian nightmare.’ This follows a refusal by Westpac to allow her to set up a payment system and refusal by more than a dozen venues to host a Wilders event, citing security concerns. The first attempt at a lecture tour last year was cancelled due to visa problems. The then minister for immigration Chris Bowen delayed granting a visa until after the cancellation.”
Dhimmitude is alive and well in this country, and getting worse as time goes on. As Sheehan wrote in an earlier article: “Wilders is opposed to what he calls the Islamification of Europe by a combination of demography, immigration and accommodations by multiculturalism that are not reciprocated by Muslims. Two other Dutch political activists who were similarly critical of Islam were subject to numerous assassination attempts. One was murdered, the other fled to America.
“Debbie Robinson believes the fear she has encountered in Australia merely confirms her reasons for arranging Wilders’ visit: ‘With every refusal I asked why, and was almost always informed that management had concerns about the repercussions. The audience was never the issue. The issue was offending Muslims. Looking at the number of cancellations and refusals it is apparent the Islamic community are not getting their message across about being the religion of peace’.”
It is not just spineless venue operators, but spineless politicians as well. Wilders has called upon Immigration Minister Chris Bowen to meet with him while he is here. As one news item puts it: “Mr Wilders said Chris Bowen, who has described the Dutch MP as an extremist and criticised his writings as offensive and wrong-headed, should meet him to debate his beliefs.
“The founder of the Dutch Freedom Party, Mr Wilders was forced to cancel a speaking tour last October after the decision to grant him a visa was delayed. At the time, Mr Bowen said he had finally decided to allow the visit because to refuse would give Mr Wilders the opportunity to become a cause celebre….
“Speaking to The Weekend Australian at his office in The Hague, he said: ‘I am not going to insult your Minister of Immigration, even though he insulted me. But he is wrong, I am not an extremist. I represent the third biggest party in the Dutch parliament, nearly one million people voted for my party and now we are No 2 in the polls. Perhaps, if he is a real man, he would like to meet with me and discuss the issues publicly or privately, I don’t care’.”
The sad truth is political correctness plus dhimmitude equals the end of freedom in any nation. Australia is not alone in curtailing freedom and democracy to appease the Islamists. Indeed, Wilders knows all about this, having experienced it firsthand in Holland. That is why he wants to come here – to warn us not to go in the direction so much of Europe has.
But for daring to do this he is facing heaps of opposition and resistance. Why are we not surprised?
http://www.qsociety.org.au/
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/fear-doesnt-need-a-visa-and-its-on-tour-already-20130206-2dyki.html
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/free-speech-dogged-by-politics-of-difference-20130120-2d13b.html
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/if-bowen-real-man-hell-call-wilders/story-fn59niix-1226567057340
[917 words]