Something very disturbing happened last Monday on FOX. Glenn Beck, who has, for the most part, steered clear of jihad, sharia and Islamic supremacism, put his toe in the water, and for the first time since I started fighting the long war, I got nervous.
Beck called the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who produced the film Fitna about Islamic Koran-based violence, a fascist, and far-right.
What is Beck doing?
Why would he stigmatize Wilders this way? Wilders is the embodiment of what our founding fathers extolled. Individual rights. Freedom of speech. Not sharia law.
In the House of Lords on March 5, Wilders said:
I believe that Islam is not compatible with our Western way of life. Islam is a threat to Western values. The equality of men and women, the equality of homosexuals and heterosexuals, the separation of church and state, freedom of speech, they are all under pressure because of islamization. Ladies and gentlemen: Islam and freedom, Islam and democracy are not compatible. They are opposite values.
Was Beck saying that standing up to defend the “equality of men and women, the equality of homosexuals and heterosexuals, the separation of church and state” and “freedom of speech” is fascist?
Was Beck saying that quisling British authorities, quaking before the Muslims in the U.K. and afraid of the truths Wilders was telling, were right last year to ban Wilders from entering the country in the interests of “community harmony?” It certainly seemed so. And Beck went on to imply that the fact that Wilders was allowed to enter Britain last week was a dire sign.
It isn’t just Wilders, either. Beck runs videos of the riots in Greece, but he never runs the Muslim rampages throughout Europe.
Beck should be championing Wilders’ cause, not smearing him. Geert Wilders is on trial in the Netherlands for telling the truth about Islam. He is on trial for inciting hatred against Muslims, and when he requested eighteen witnesses – Muslims and non-Muslim scholars - to prove that what he said about Islam was true and therefore couldn’t or shouldn’t be against the law, the Dutch kangaroo court disallowed all but three of them.
The trial is now adjourned, but it will reconvene soon - and it’s quite possible that Wilders will go to jail for speaking the truth. This trial marks the criminalizing of free speech in the Netherlands, and imperils free speech all over the West. If Wilders can be sent to jail for the “hate speech” of quoting the Koran and showing how Muslims act on its violent commands, anyone can be sent to jail for telling truths that the ruling elites don’t want told. I can be sent to jail. You can be sent to jail. Glenn Beck can be sent to jail.
Beck didn’t say Wilders should go to jail, but what he did say was so bad, he could just as well have done so. This is not just about Geert Wilders. It is about our very way of life, our civilization and our unalienable rights.
Beck is out of his depth in this. One cannot get up to speed on Europe in one crash course. He warned about the rise of the “far right” in Europe. The Islamic/left-wing fringe is everywhere, but what far right fringe was he talking about in Europe? He couldn’t have meant French antisemite Jean Marie Le Pen. He is nowhere. Was Beck intending to tar courageous groups that are not remotely racist or fascist, like Stop the Islamisation Of Europe and the English Defence League?
Is this going to be be Beck’s narrative? If so, he is wrong. And he ought to be silent until he learns the facts about what is going on in Europe.
Wilders also said this at the House of Lords:
Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake: The left is facilitating islamization. Leftists, liberals, are cheering for every new shariah bank being created, for every new shariah mortgage, for every new islamic school, for every new shariah court. Leftists consider Islam as being equal to our own culture. Shariah law or democracy? Islam or freedom? It doesn’t really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire leftist elite is guilty of practising cultural relativism. Universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians. They are all betraying our hard-won liberties.
Should we now also add Glenn Beck to that list?
Beck could destroy the freedom movement in Europe - and the United States - if he erroneously stigmatizes it as fascist. He should know better. He is doing what the left-wing media did to the tea parties: labeling them fascists and racists with impunity.
If everyone is a bad guy, even the good guys, who is going to fight the good fight?
