Religion
Related: About this forumGeert Wilders Says There's No Such Thing as Moderate Islam
Can't Someone Tell Geert Wilders to Stop His Anti-Muslim Diatribes Before Somebody Gets Hurt?
Jan 16, 2012 12:00 AM EST
A couple of years ago, a billboard appeared outside Columbia, S.C., looming above Interstate 26. Beady eyes stared out from a black balaclava emblazoned with an inscription from the Quranclearly the eyes were meant to be those of a terroristand next to them were these words: ISLAM RISING ... BE WARNED.
Erected by the Virginia-based Christian Action Network, the sign advertised the groups documentary about a charismatic Dutch politician with dyed-blond hair, a mysterious past, and a platform of paranoid hate. South Carolina seemed to offer a ready audience for Geert Wilderss dire warnings against the Muslim religion. Today, with the Republican road show encamped in the state for the Jan. 21 presidential primary, the 48-year-old Dutchman is more than ever a man who needs to be watched and listened to carefully. At home in the Netherlands, his explosive theme of unrelenting hostility to Islam has built his xenophobic Party for Freedom, founded in 2005, into the countrys third-largest political party; across the Atlantic his message packs serious resonance in an American heartland still shaken by the 9/11 attacks. Wilderss name and message have been invoked repeatedly in South Carolina and at least a dozen other state legislatures as they debate measures to ban an imagined threat: Islamic law.
So does he worry about the violence his rants could inspire? Wilders is a master at capitalizing on real fears and conjuring false onesand then dodging responsibility if peoples lives are ruined or lost. I am responsible for my own actions and for nobody elses actions, he says. In a wide-ranging interview at the offices of the Dutch Parliament in The Hague, Wilders complained to Newsweek that the naive Obama administration wasnt doing nearly enough to combat what Wilders regards as the Islamic threat. Expanding on his claims that the Quran should be banned, just as Mein Kampf has been in some countries, he said the United States should be getting rid of Islamic symbolsno more mosquesand closing down Islamic schools.
Theres no such thing as moderate Islam, Wilders insists, and hes tired of hearing that radical Islam is something different from the mainstream faith. It means nothing to him that among Muslim believers there are many different sects and currents. He makes no distinctions whatsoever, says Robert Leiken, author of the just-published study Europes Angry Muslims. He wants to throw out the whole Quran because of some things that are objectionablebut you could say the same thing about the Book of Joshua. Wilders refuses to concede the point. In his view, those who follow the Quran are deluded or worse. Totalitarian fascist ideology, he calls it. I have nothing against the people, he says. I have something against Islam.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/15/geert-wilders-says-there-s-no-such-thing-as-moderate-islam.html
laconicsax
(14,860 posts)There's no sect called "Moderate Islam." There's Sunni, Shi'a, and Sufism.
rug
(82,333 posts)laconicsax
(14,860 posts)I was merely pointing out that his argument is correct in nearly the exact same way that Andrew Brown is right when he says that the Pope didn't say that gay marriage threatens humanity.
Since you posted Brown's piece and defended it, it would seem that you are more likely to be in agreement with the right wing demagogue whose words you posted without comment.
Response to laconicsax (Reply #4)
Post removed
laconicsax
(14,860 posts)You seem to have ignored the rest of the sentence: "...in the same sense that the Pope didn't say that gay marriage threatens humanity."
In case you forgot, you posted a piece claiming that, contrary to headlines, the Pope didn't say that gay marriage threatens humanity. The argument being that since he didn't say those exact words in sequence, he didn't say it. This argument is, of course, completely wrong.
Geert Wilders is correct in the exact same way--there's no sect of Islam called "moderate Islam." This argument is, as well, completely wrong. It's interesting that you agree with that line of reasoning in one instance, but not in another. I would have thought that your cognitions were more consistent than that.
rug
(82,333 posts)Have fun.
laconicsax
(14,860 posts)I haven't misrepresented Brown's argument, I'm merely applying it to another instance of bigoted hate speech.
The big question is why you defended it when it was being used to defend homophobia, but don't think it applies to Islamophobic statements.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)LeftishBrit
(41,212 posts)mr blur
(7,753 posts)It's the moderates who enable/legitimise the actions of the extremists.