Sim's idea is that there are two beings in the Bible and the Koran. There is God, who is a He, and YHWH, who is a he/she/it. Sim sees the Bible (though not all of the books) and Koran as a conversation between God and YHWH. God created YHWH, and YHWH thinks it is God. In scripture is God trying to show YHWH that he/she/it is not God.
The purpose of reading scripture, for Sim, is to determine which verses are authored by God and and which by YHWH. God's are always simple whereas YHWH's are very complex. For example, most of the Ten Commandments are YHWH's. He says Genesis 1:1 (minus one verse, which was added by men according to Sim) describes how God created the Universe and Genesis 1:2 is YHWH's version of the events. God tries to show YHWH that he/she/it is not God, stepping in occasionally to help it come to this realization. According to Sim this begins in the Old Testament (minus the writings), continues in the New Testament (minus Paul's Letters) and concludes in the Koran. Sim says there are two Jesuses, the Synoptic, who is (mostly) YHWH's and who tries to lead people away from God, and the Johannine, who is God's, though following Islam, not God himself. He first presented these ideas in his commentaries on the Torah (most of Genesis and a bit of Exodus) contained in the Cerebus book Latter Days and he has done commentaries on all four Gospels, which remain unpublished, though parts of his Mark commentaries are online at the Cerebus Yahoo! group.
There are more details, but that is essentially it.
Dave Sim's Metaphysics
Re: Dave Sim's Metaphysics
Sorry if this answer isn't philosophic...
In the hebrew Bible, God have two names. First comes Elohim, then Elohim is replaced with YHWH. The archeaologic answer to this is that the Old Testament is based on many different pagan religions in the Canaan area. This also explains why the "Lord" changes features throughout the story. In some of the books he's all-seeing and everywhere, in others he have to physically move around, in some he can be seen, in others he cannot be seen etc.
In the hebrew Bible, God have two names. First comes Elohim, then Elohim is replaced with YHWH. The archeaologic answer to this is that the Old Testament is based on many different pagan religions in the Canaan area. This also explains why the "Lord" changes features throughout the story. In some of the books he's all-seeing and everywhere, in others he have to physically move around, in some he can be seen, in others he cannot be seen etc.
Ignosticist
-
BMcGilly07
- Posts: 280
- Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:33 pm
Re: Dave Sim's Metaphysics
The following is a speech by Geert Wilders, a Dutch Lawmaker to the Hudson Institute of New York:
(Link to original article here: http://www.pvv.nl/index.php?option=com_ ... 0&Itemid=1 )
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me. Great to be at the Four Seasons. Icome from a country that has one season only: a rainy season thatstarts January 1st and ends December 31st. When we have three sunnydays in a row, the government declares a national emergency. So FourSeasons, that’s new to me.
It’s great to be in New York. When I see the skyscrapers and officebuildings, I think of what Ayn Rand said: “The sky over New York andthe will of man made visible.” Of course. Without the Dutch you wouldhave been nowhere, still figuring out how to buy this island from theIndians. But we are glad we did it for you. And, frankly, you did a farbetter job than we possibly could have done.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world.There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to beoptimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization ofEurope. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future ofEurope itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of theWest. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the lastman standing. The United States as the last bastion of Westerncivilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the USwill ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risktheir lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario form becominga reality.
My short lecture consists of 4 parts.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, Iwill say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, Iwill talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close I willtell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks.The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome’s ancient buildings andmaybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they stilllook very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.
But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from yourtourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitorssee – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is theworld of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. Allthroughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoodswhere very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if theyare, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s theworld of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents,with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, orslaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques onmany street corner. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. Youwill be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslimghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslimneighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe.These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasinglylarger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood byneighbourhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With largercongregations than there are in churches. And in every European citythere are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church inthe region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just takeAmsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majorityof the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ringof Muslim neighbourhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boysin many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can nolonger be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig,and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgiumand Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerantAmsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslimwomen routinely hear “whore, whore”. Satellite dishes are not pointedto local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. InFrance school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive toMuslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly trueof Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can in many cases no longer betaught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are nowofficially part of the British legal system. Many neighbourhoods inFrance are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a manalmost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because hewas drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in recordnumbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World WarII. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv andNetanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Storiesabout Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San DiegoUniversity recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of thepopulation in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. BernhardLewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening ifthe Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there arefew signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of FrenchMuslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty toFrance. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks.The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third ofBritish Muslim students are in favour of a worldwide caliphate. A Dutchstudy reported that half of Dutch Muslims admit they “understand” the9/11 attacks.
Muslims demand what they call ‘respect’. And this is how we give themrespect. Our elites are willing to give in. To give up. In my owncountry we have gone from calls by one cabinet member to turn Muslimholidays into official state holidays, to statements by another cabinetmember, that Islam is part of Dutch culture, to an affirmation by theChristian-Democratic attorney general that he is willing to acceptsharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We havecabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behaviour, ranging from pettycrimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers andbus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in thelow-income suburbs, the banlieus. Some prefer to see these as isolatedincidents, but I call it a Muslim intifada. I call the perpetrators“settlers”. Because that is what they are. They do not come tointegrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society intotheir Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusivelyagainst non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave theirneighbourhoods, their cities, their countries.
Politicians shy away from taking a stand against this creeping sharia.They believe in the equality of all cultures. Moreover, on a mundanelevel, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
Our many problems with Islam cannot be explained by poverty, repressionor the European colonial past, as the Left claims. Nor does it haveanything to do with Palestinians or American troops in Iraq. Theproblem is Islam itself.
Allow me to give you a brief Islam 101. The first thing you need toknow about Islam is the importance of the book of the Quran. The Quranis Allah’s personal word, revealed by an angel to Mohammed, theprophet. This is where the trouble starts. Every word in the Quran isAllah’s word and therefore not open to discussion or interpretation. Itis valid for every Muslim and for all times. Therefore, there is nosuch a thing as moderate Islam. Sure, there are a lot of moderateMuslims. But a moderate Islam is non-existent.
The Quran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder, andterrorism. The Quran calls for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, toterrorize non-Muslims and to fulfil their duty to wage war: violentjihad. Jihad is a duty for every Muslim, Islam is to rule the world –by the sword. The Quran is clearly anti-Semitic, describing Jews asmonkeys and pigs.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed theprophet. His behaviour is an example to all Muslims and cannot becriticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say likeGhandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem.But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and hadseveral marriages – at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how hefought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even hadprisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewishtribe of Banu Qurayza. He advised on matters of slavery, but neveradvised to liberate slaves. Islam has no other morality than theadvancement of Islam. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is badfor Islam, it is bad. There is no gray area or other side.
Quran as Allah’s own word and Mohammed as the perfect man are the twomost important facets of Islam. Let no one fool you about Islam being areligion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But inits essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that laysdown detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islamwants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means ‘submission’. Islamis not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strivesfor is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it tocommunism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarianideologies.
This is what you need to know about Islam, in order to understand whatis going on in Europe. For millions of Muslims the Quran and the liveof Mohammed are not 14 centuries old, but are an everyday reality, anideal, that guide every aspect of their lives. Now you know why WinstonChurchill called Islam “the most retrograde force in the world”, andwhy he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran.
Which brings me to my movie, Fitna.
I am a lawmaker, and not a movie maker. But I felt I had the moral dutyto educate about Islam. The duty to make clear that the Quran stands atthe heart of what some people call terrorism but is in reality jihad. Iwanted to show that the problems of Islam are at the core of Islam, anddo not belong to its fringes.
Now, from the day the plan for my movie was made public, it causedquite a stir, in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. First, therewas a political storm, with government leaders, across the continent insheer panic. The Netherlands was put under a heightened terror alert,because of possible attacks or a revolt by our Muslim population. TheDutch branch of the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir declared thatthe Netherlands was due for an attack. Internationally, there was aseries of incidents. The Taliban threatened to organize additionalattacks against Dutch troops in Afghanistan, and a website linked to AlQaeda published the message that I ought to be killed, while variousmuftis in the Middle East stated that I would be responsible for allthe bloodshed after the screening of the movie. In Afghanistan andPakistan the Dutch flag was burned on several occasions. Dollsrepresenting me were also burned. The Indonesian President announcedthat I will never be admitted into Indonesia again, while the UNSecretary General and the European Union issued cowardly statements inthe same vein as those made by the Dutch Government. I could go on andon. It was an absolute disgrace, a sell-out.
A plethora of legal troubles also followed, and have not ended yet.Currently the state of Jordan is litigating against me. Only last weekthere were renewed security agency reports about a heightened terroralert for the Netherlands because of Fitna.
Now, I would like to say a few things about Israel. Because, very soon,we will get together in its capitol. The best way for a politician inEurope to loose votes is to say something positive about Israel. Thepublic has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and seesIsrael as the aggressor. I, however, will continue to speak up forIsrael. I see defending Israel as a matter of principle. I have livedin this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel.First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years ofexile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy,and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
Samuel Huntington writes it so aptly: “Islam has bloody borders”.Israel is located precisely on that border. This tiny country issituated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam’s territorialadvance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir,Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon,and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same wayWest-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war againstthe West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that aremeant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamicimperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and itsdesire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their childrento the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America cansleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to addressthe grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, Godforbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It wouldnot mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change theirbehavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israelwould give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would,and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West isweak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of ourproblems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start ofthe final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they canget everything. Therefore, it is not that the West has a stake inIsrael. It is Israel.
It is very difficult to be an optimist in the face of the growingIslamization of Europe. All the tides are against us. On all fronts weare losing. Demographically the momentum is with Islam. Muslimimmigration is even a source of pride within ruling liberal parties.Academia, the arts, the media, trade unions, the churches, the businessworld, the entire political establishment have all converted to thesuicidal theory of multiculturalism. So-called journalists volunteer tolabel any and all critics of Islamization as a ‘right-wing extremists’or ‘racists’. The entire establishment has sided with our enemy.Leftists, liberals and Christian-Democrats are now all in bed withIslam.
This is the most painful thing to see: the betrayal by our elites. Atthis moment in Europe’s history, our elites are supposed to lead us. Tostand up for centuries of civilization. To defend our heritage. Tohonour our eternal Judeo-Christian values that made Europe what it istoday. But there are very few signs of hope to be seen at thegovernmental level. Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown, Berlusconi; in private,they probably know how grave the situation is. But when the little redlight goes on, they stare into the camera and tell us that Islam is areligion of peace, and we should all try to get along nicely and singKumbaya. They willingly participate in, what President Reagan so aptlycalled: “the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.”
If there is hope in Europe, it comes from the people, not from theelites. Change can only come from a grass-roots level. It has to comefrom the citizens themselves. Yet these patriots will have to take onthe entire political, legal and media establishment.
Over the past years there have been some small, but encouraging, signsof a rebirth of the original European spirit. Maybe the elites turntheir backs on freedom, the public does not. In my country, theNetherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigrationof Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. Andanother 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat to our nationalidentity. I don’t think the public opinion in Holland is very differentfrom other European countries.
Patriotic parties that oppose jihad are growing, against all odds. Myown party debuted two years ago, with five percent of the vote. Now itstands at ten percent in the polls. The same is true of allsmililary-minded parties in Europe. They are fighting the liberalestablishment, and are gaining footholds on the political arena, onevoter at the time.
Now, for the first time, these patriotic parties will come together andexchange experiences. It may be the start of something big. Somethingthat might change the map of Europe for decades to come. It might alsobe Europe’s last chance.
This December a conference will take place in Jerusalem. Thanks toProfessor Aryeh Eldad, a member of Knesset, we will be able to watchFitna in the Knesset building and discuss the jihad. We are organizingthis event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the sameboat together, and that Israel is part of our common heritage. Thoseattending will be a select audience. No racist organizations will beallowed. And we will only admit parties that are solidly democratic.
This conference will be the start of an Alliance of European patriots.This Alliance will serve as the backbone for all organizations andpolitical parties that oppose jihad and Islamization. For this AllianceI seek your support.
This endeavor may be crucial to America and to the West. America mayhold fast to the dream that, thanks tot its location, it is safe fromjihad and shaira. But seven years ago to the day, there was still smokerising from ground zero, following the attacks that forever shatteredthat dream. Yet there is a danger even greater danger than terroristattacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lightsmay go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europemeans a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, anintellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - asits allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With anIslamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve theheritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generationnever had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silverplatter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughoutEurope American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never madeit home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own thisfreedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hardwon liberty to Europe’s children in the same state in which it wasoffered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Futuregenerations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties.We simply do not have the right to do so.
This is not the first time our civilization is under threat. We haveseen dangers before. We have been betrayed by our elites before. Theyhave sided with our enemies before. And yet, then, freedom prevailed.
These are not times in which to take lessons from appeasement,capitulation, giving away, giving up or giving in. These are not timesin which to draw lessons from Mr. Chamberlain. These are times callingus to draw lessons from Mr. Churchill and the words he spoke in 1942:
“Never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small,large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and goodsense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelmingmight of the enemy”.
(Link to original article here: http://www.pvv.nl/index.php?option=com_ ... 0&Itemid=1 )
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me. Great to be at the Four Seasons. Icome from a country that has one season only: a rainy season thatstarts January 1st and ends December 31st. When we have three sunnydays in a row, the government declares a national emergency. So FourSeasons, that’s new to me.
It’s great to be in New York. When I see the skyscrapers and officebuildings, I think of what Ayn Rand said: “The sky over New York andthe will of man made visible.” Of course. Without the Dutch you wouldhave been nowhere, still figuring out how to buy this island from theIndians. But we are glad we did it for you. And, frankly, you did a farbetter job than we possibly could have done.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world.There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to beoptimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization ofEurope. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future ofEurope itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of theWest. The danger I see looming is the scenario of America as the lastman standing. The United States as the last bastion of Westerncivilization, facing an Islamic Europe. In a generation or two, the USwill ask itself: who lost Europe? Patriots from around Europe risktheir lives every day to prevent precisely this scenario form becominga reality.
My short lecture consists of 4 parts.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, Iwill say a few things about Islam. Thirdly, if you are still here, Iwill talk a little bit about the movie you just saw. To close I willtell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks.The Eiffel Tower and Trafalgar Square and Rome’s ancient buildings andmaybe the canals of Amsterdam. They are still there. And they stilllook very much the same as they did a hundred years ago.
But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from yourtourist destination, there is another world, a world very few visitorssee – and one that does not appear in your tourist guidebook. It is theworld of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. Allthroughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighbourhoodswhere very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if theyare, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s theworld of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents,with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, orslaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques onmany street corner. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. Youwill be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslimghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslimneighbourhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe.These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasinglylarger portions of Europe, street by street, neighbourhood byneighbourhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With largercongregations than there are in churches. And in every European citythere are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church inthe region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just takeAmsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majorityof the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ringof Muslim neighbourhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boysin many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can nolonger be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig,and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgiumand Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerantAmsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslimwomen routinely hear “whore, whore”. Satellite dishes are not pointedto local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. InFrance school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive toMuslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly trueof Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can in many cases no longer betaught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are nowofficially part of the British legal system. Many neighbourhoods inFrance are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a manalmost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because hewas drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in recordnumbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World WarII. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv andNetanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Storiesabout Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San DiegoUniversity recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of thepopulation in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. BernhardLewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening ifthe Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there arefew signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of FrenchMuslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty toFrance. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks.The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third ofBritish Muslim students are in favour of a worldwide caliphate. A Dutchstudy reported that half of Dutch Muslims admit they “understand” the9/11 attacks.
Muslims demand what they call ‘respect’. And this is how we give themrespect. Our elites are willing to give in. To give up. In my owncountry we have gone from calls by one cabinet member to turn Muslimholidays into official state holidays, to statements by another cabinetmember, that Islam is part of Dutch culture, to an affirmation by theChristian-Democratic attorney general that he is willing to acceptsharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We havecabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behaviour, ranging from pettycrimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers andbus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in thelow-income suburbs, the banlieus. Some prefer to see these as isolatedincidents, but I call it a Muslim intifada. I call the perpetrators“settlers”. Because that is what they are. They do not come tointegrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society intotheir Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusivelyagainst non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave theirneighbourhoods, their cities, their countries.
Politicians shy away from taking a stand against this creeping sharia.They believe in the equality of all cultures. Moreover, on a mundanelevel, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
Our many problems with Islam cannot be explained by poverty, repressionor the European colonial past, as the Left claims. Nor does it haveanything to do with Palestinians or American troops in Iraq. Theproblem is Islam itself.
Allow me to give you a brief Islam 101. The first thing you need toknow about Islam is the importance of the book of the Quran. The Quranis Allah’s personal word, revealed by an angel to Mohammed, theprophet. This is where the trouble starts. Every word in the Quran isAllah’s word and therefore not open to discussion or interpretation. Itis valid for every Muslim and for all times. Therefore, there is nosuch a thing as moderate Islam. Sure, there are a lot of moderateMuslims. But a moderate Islam is non-existent.
The Quran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder, andterrorism. The Quran calls for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, toterrorize non-Muslims and to fulfil their duty to wage war: violentjihad. Jihad is a duty for every Muslim, Islam is to rule the world –by the sword. The Quran is clearly anti-Semitic, describing Jews asmonkeys and pigs.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed theprophet. His behaviour is an example to all Muslims and cannot becriticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say likeGhandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem.But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and hadseveral marriages – at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how hefought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even hadprisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewishtribe of Banu Qurayza. He advised on matters of slavery, but neveradvised to liberate slaves. Islam has no other morality than theadvancement of Islam. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is badfor Islam, it is bad. There is no gray area or other side.
Quran as Allah’s own word and Mohammed as the perfect man are the twomost important facets of Islam. Let no one fool you about Islam being areligion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But inits essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that laysdown detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islamwants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means ‘submission’. Islamis not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strivesfor is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it tocommunism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarianideologies.
This is what you need to know about Islam, in order to understand whatis going on in Europe. For millions of Muslims the Quran and the liveof Mohammed are not 14 centuries old, but are an everyday reality, anideal, that guide every aspect of their lives. Now you know why WinstonChurchill called Islam “the most retrograde force in the world”, andwhy he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran.
Which brings me to my movie, Fitna.
I am a lawmaker, and not a movie maker. But I felt I had the moral dutyto educate about Islam. The duty to make clear that the Quran stands atthe heart of what some people call terrorism but is in reality jihad. Iwanted to show that the problems of Islam are at the core of Islam, anddo not belong to its fringes.
Now, from the day the plan for my movie was made public, it causedquite a stir, in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. First, therewas a political storm, with government leaders, across the continent insheer panic. The Netherlands was put under a heightened terror alert,because of possible attacks or a revolt by our Muslim population. TheDutch branch of the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir declared thatthe Netherlands was due for an attack. Internationally, there was aseries of incidents. The Taliban threatened to organize additionalattacks against Dutch troops in Afghanistan, and a website linked to AlQaeda published the message that I ought to be killed, while variousmuftis in the Middle East stated that I would be responsible for allthe bloodshed after the screening of the movie. In Afghanistan andPakistan the Dutch flag was burned on several occasions. Dollsrepresenting me were also burned. The Indonesian President announcedthat I will never be admitted into Indonesia again, while the UNSecretary General and the European Union issued cowardly statements inthe same vein as those made by the Dutch Government. I could go on andon. It was an absolute disgrace, a sell-out.
A plethora of legal troubles also followed, and have not ended yet.Currently the state of Jordan is litigating against me. Only last weekthere were renewed security agency reports about a heightened terroralert for the Netherlands because of Fitna.
Now, I would like to say a few things about Israel. Because, very soon,we will get together in its capitol. The best way for a politician inEurope to loose votes is to say something positive about Israel. Thepublic has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and seesIsrael as the aggressor. I, however, will continue to speak up forIsrael. I see defending Israel as a matter of principle. I have livedin this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel.First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years ofexile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy,and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
Samuel Huntington writes it so aptly: “Islam has bloody borders”.Israel is located precisely on that border. This tiny country issituated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam’s territorialadvance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir,Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon,and Aceh in Indonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same wayWest-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war againstthe West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that aremeant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamicimperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and itsdesire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their childrento the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America cansleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to addressthe grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, Godforbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It wouldnot mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change theirbehavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israelwould give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would,and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West isweak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of ourproblems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start ofthe final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they canget everything. Therefore, it is not that the West has a stake inIsrael. It is Israel.
It is very difficult to be an optimist in the face of the growingIslamization of Europe. All the tides are against us. On all fronts weare losing. Demographically the momentum is with Islam. Muslimimmigration is even a source of pride within ruling liberal parties.Academia, the arts, the media, trade unions, the churches, the businessworld, the entire political establishment have all converted to thesuicidal theory of multiculturalism. So-called journalists volunteer tolabel any and all critics of Islamization as a ‘right-wing extremists’or ‘racists’. The entire establishment has sided with our enemy.Leftists, liberals and Christian-Democrats are now all in bed withIslam.
This is the most painful thing to see: the betrayal by our elites. Atthis moment in Europe’s history, our elites are supposed to lead us. Tostand up for centuries of civilization. To defend our heritage. Tohonour our eternal Judeo-Christian values that made Europe what it istoday. But there are very few signs of hope to be seen at thegovernmental level. Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown, Berlusconi; in private,they probably know how grave the situation is. But when the little redlight goes on, they stare into the camera and tell us that Islam is areligion of peace, and we should all try to get along nicely and singKumbaya. They willingly participate in, what President Reagan so aptlycalled: “the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.”
If there is hope in Europe, it comes from the people, not from theelites. Change can only come from a grass-roots level. It has to comefrom the citizens themselves. Yet these patriots will have to take onthe entire political, legal and media establishment.
Over the past years there have been some small, but encouraging, signsof a rebirth of the original European spirit. Maybe the elites turntheir backs on freedom, the public does not. In my country, theNetherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigrationof Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. Andanother 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat to our nationalidentity. I don’t think the public opinion in Holland is very differentfrom other European countries.
Patriotic parties that oppose jihad are growing, against all odds. Myown party debuted two years ago, with five percent of the vote. Now itstands at ten percent in the polls. The same is true of allsmililary-minded parties in Europe. They are fighting the liberalestablishment, and are gaining footholds on the political arena, onevoter at the time.
Now, for the first time, these patriotic parties will come together andexchange experiences. It may be the start of something big. Somethingthat might change the map of Europe for decades to come. It might alsobe Europe’s last chance.
This December a conference will take place in Jerusalem. Thanks toProfessor Aryeh Eldad, a member of Knesset, we will be able to watchFitna in the Knesset building and discuss the jihad. We are organizingthis event in Israel to emphasize the fact that we are all in the sameboat together, and that Israel is part of our common heritage. Thoseattending will be a select audience. No racist organizations will beallowed. And we will only admit parties that are solidly democratic.
This conference will be the start of an Alliance of European patriots.This Alliance will serve as the backbone for all organizations andpolitical parties that oppose jihad and Islamization. For this AllianceI seek your support.
This endeavor may be crucial to America and to the West. America mayhold fast to the dream that, thanks tot its location, it is safe fromjihad and shaira. But seven years ago to the day, there was still smokerising from ground zero, following the attacks that forever shatteredthat dream. Yet there is a danger even greater danger than terroristattacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lightsmay go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europemeans a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, anintellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - asits allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With anIslamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve theheritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generationnever had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silverplatter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughoutEurope American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never madeit home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own thisfreedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hardwon liberty to Europe’s children in the same state in which it wasoffered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Futuregenerations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties.We simply do not have the right to do so.
This is not the first time our civilization is under threat. We haveseen dangers before. We have been betrayed by our elites before. Theyhave sided with our enemies before. And yet, then, freedom prevailed.
These are not times in which to take lessons from appeasement,capitulation, giving away, giving up or giving in. These are not timesin which to draw lessons from Mr. Chamberlain. These are times callingus to draw lessons from Mr. Churchill and the words he spoke in 1942:
“Never give in, never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small,large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and goodsense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelmingmight of the enemy”.