Geert Wilders Trial Fitna and Pat Condell

With Geert Wilders currently on trial in Holland for the alleged crime of inciting racial hatred against Muslims I decided I would revisit "Fitna" the film he made that warned about the dangers of Islam and the Islamification of Europe. The film was widely banned and caused great controversy. If you havent seen it I strongly recommend a viewing ( it is available on YouTube)

Fitna is of course a polemic - it presents an argument about the link between the nature of the Quran and the violence around the world that we see perpetrated in the name of Islam. Fitna does not of course address the fact that most Muslims are peaceful. But does that mean that the arguments that it presents are incorrect?

Most Christians didn't join the medieval crusades but that doesn't mean that Christianity in those days was not - in its impact on the world - war like and often barbarous. There may have been Nazis who personally didn't murder Jews but that doesn't mean it wasn't valid to warn of the dangers of Nazism. Most right wing Christian creationists are probably well meaning people but that doesn't mean that their ideology can't be criticised as potentially destructive and backward looking.

We have experienced the strange phenomenon in recent years of liberal left commentators defending one of the most anti-female anti-semitic anti-progressive anti-free speech and homophobic political religious movements that any of us have seen in our lifetimes - political Islam and its violent "revolutionary" vanguard the Islamic Jihadists and fundamentalists.

Left wing socialists have become strange bedfellows with right wing Islamo-fascists as they seek to argue against "Islamophobia" but singularly fail to address the extreme anti-progressive nature of political Islam.

You don't need to agree with Geert Wilders completely to see that his attempts to address these issues stems , in part , from the failure of those who should be flying the flag for progressive thought to address the iniquity within political Islam. Their failure has left a vacuum and that vacuum will be filled dangerously by those on the right unless the left is more sophisticated in its response to Islam. In this case being sophisticated must mean defending individual Muslims against discrimination and hate while robustly challenging the influence of the medieval thinking of Islam on western culture.

One commentator from the left who always gets this right is Pat Condell. I have posted videos of his before and they never fail to be right on the button. He has earned himself much bile from some on the left for his outspoken views but I think much of this reaction is because he invariably exposes the weakness of the current thinking of many on the left on the subject of political Islam.

I came across a video from Pat Condell, which I had seen some time ago, on the subject of Fitna and Islam so I am posting it here so that I have ready access to it.
What do you think about what Condell says here?

Glasgow Anti Fascist Rally SDL No Show

Well as I expected I had some mixed feelings about the anti-fascist demonstration that I took part in yesterday in Glasgow.

On the positive side the day appears to have ended as a more or less shambles for the Scottish Defence League - the group which had attempted to organise an "anti- jihadist" rally outside the Glasgow Mosque.

As I said in my previous post if I could believe that they were simply out to protest against Islamic fundamentalism then I would have a great deal of smpathy with them. The problem is that even if one believes that the founders and organisers of this group aren't looking to create a more Islamophobic agenda then at minumum the group certainly suffers from attracting out and out fascists and racists to its rallies.

One of the speakers (I believe it was Aamer Anwar) at the Anti -fascist rally made the point that if people have criticism of the Muslim community over the issue of terrorism or extremism then they should engage the Muslim community in debate and not seek to come out onto the streets and rally outside their Mosques to provoke them.

That is a sentiment that I wholly agree with. I have personally been very critical of Muslim thinking over recent years and the failure for a long time to take on fundamentalists. Its an entirely different thing though for people to take an issue like that to the streets. Its even more unacceptable when the clear intent is simply to provoke trouble.


I am sure Mr Anwar applies this same logic to extremists within his own community. I do wonder though as this is the same guy who, after the attempted terrorist bombing at Glasgow airport, made the disgraceful statement that ""A Stealth bomber in Iraq is the moral equivalent of a suicide bomber in Scotland". Hmm ....

The attempt by the SDL to organise a rally ended in abject failure anyway as the police used the Public Order Act to ensure that they would not rally outside the mosque. In the event a fairly small group appear to have met in a pub in the centre of Glasgow from where they were eventually bundled onto buses and shipped out of the city.

The turn out for the anti-fascism rally called by Scotland United was good given that the weather was awful on Saturday. The crowd really needed their umbrellas and waterproofs as they stood and listened to speakers from all the main political parties before the march began.

The presence of politicians from all the main parties was one of the most encouraging aspects of the event. When Annabelle Gouldie from the Scottish Conservatives took the stage there was a ripple of mumbling among what was a fairly partisan crowd. But she spoke forceably and the crowd showed their approval even for her as she finished her speech.

There were of course the usual political plonkers that these sort of events attract - not least in this case Tommy "Party Boy" Sheridan who readers of this blog will know has had lets say an "interesting" relationship with the Scottish Courts in recent years

Almost all the speakers stuck to the agenda for the day which was about rallying against Fascists and Rascists. Unfortunately Aamer Anwar, and Osama Saeed both tried to include Anti-war rhetoric in their speeches which I felt was uncalled for as by no means everyone who wants to protest about fascists agrees with their views on this.

One of them ( I believe it was Saeed) tried to suggest that Muslims were "being killed all round the world" and that Muslim extremism was entirely due to this. While this played well with a sizeable proportion of the crowd that does not of course mean that there his any logic in this assertion. Muslim extremeism was building in this country long before the war in Iraq or Afghanistan and most Muslim deaths around the world are clearly the result of Muslim on Muslim violence.

This is of course one of the perils of attending these types of events, there is a great deal of simplistic sloganising and it's difficult to distance yourself when the organisers of something that you basically support start spouting this kind of nonsense. Still in the greater cause of showing support for the anti-fascist cause I was prepared to stand and listen to such tosh - this time.

I have some photos from the rally which I'll add in here later.

The truth about Islam

In my last post I linked to a video rant by Pat Condell about the banning of Geert Wilders. Pat Condell has a series of witty and sharply critical videos covering the absurdities of religion and in particular of the appeasement of Islam that has become a feature in the West. If you haven't heard much of Pat Condell before then his video series is well worth watching.

Remigious who I think visits here from Freethinker (leave me a link to you Remigious) in a comment on my last post suggested that I should check out the "feedback" that Condell has received and so I did. Well it seems that Condell is attracting the attention of some very enlightened Islamic fundamentalist thinkers. Their "Feedback" consists largely of threats to do things to his anal orifice or to those of his mother, sister, friends and so on - oh and various beheading threats as well. Religion of peace? - my arse! The fact that their threats simply prove Condell's point is of course probably lost on them. If you want to read them for yourself then they are on the feedback section of Pat Condell's site.

Here is another video from Pat Condell in which he rips apart the idea that somehow all the problems with Islam would be solved if we all just showed it more respect. Condell shows just how farcical this idea is.

Islam and Free Speech

This video polemic on the recent banning of Geert Wilders makes some very powerful points about the stranglehold that religion increasingly has on our political life. If you read the comments that have poured in to many newspaper sites, blog sites and other places it is clear that there is widespread public concern about the governments recent actions in backing down when faced with threats of Islamic violent demonstrations. There is real muddle and confusion on this issue and we are seeing the sad sight of supposedly left and liberal politicians preventing free dialogue and protecting a fascist ideology from criticism.

As others have noted it is like claiming that Jews in Germany needed to be stopped from criticising the Nazis because this might provoke Nazi violence. Shut the victims up rather than tackle the real perpetrators of hate and bigotry now seems to be the preferred position of our political parties.

Churchills Prophetic words on Islam

Winston Churchill in his 1899 book, "The River War" describes his observations and thoughts on Muslims and Islam.

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

These words ring very true in our modern experience of Islam do they not? It is a religion which appears to subjugate women wherever it takes hold. It spawns Jihadi warriors who are content to intentionally target the innocent. It has become so powerful a force in this country since the trouble over the "Satanic Verses" that our political class is afraid to allow debate over the nature of political Islam.

I am with Churchill on this one. Many and probably most individual Muslims are ordinary people who try to live decently. But they live a political religion; one which will countenance no "offense"; one whose holy text the Koran contains calls to violence against non-muslims. In its totality the religion of Islam is without doubt a most "retrograde force".

India arrests editor for outraging muslims

In another attack on the right to criticize religion the Editor and Publisher of a respected Indian newspaper have been arrested for "hurting the feelings" of Muslims. Their "offence" was that they reprinted an article published in the UK newspaper The Independent which was written by one of their columnists Johann Hari.

The original article Why should I respect these oppressive religions? argued that the right to criticize religion is slowly being eaten away all around the world in the face of fundamentalist religionists who insist in their right not to have their feelings hurt.

The article points out that;

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated 60 years ago that "a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief is the highest aspiration of the common people". It was a Magna Carta for mankind – and loathed by every human rights abuser on earth. Today, the Chinese dictatorship calls it "Western", Robert Mugabe calls it "colonialist", and Dick Cheney calls it "outdated". The countries of the world have chronically failed to meet it – but the document has been held up by the United Nations as the ultimate standard against which to check ourselves. Until now.

Starting in 1999, a coalition of Islamist tyrants, led by Saudi Arabia, demanded the rules be rewritten. The demand for everyone to be able to think and speak freely failed to "respect" the "unique sensitivities" of the religious, they decided – so they issued an alternative Islamic Declaration of Human Rights. It insisted that you can only speak within "the limits set by the shariah [law]. It is not permitted to spread falsehood or disseminate that which involves encouraging abomination or forsaking the Islamic community".

Arrests in India can be seen as simply proving the point that the article sought to make. It is becomming increasingly risky to be seen to criticize religion, and in particular Islam. Religionists can claim to take offence at almost anything remotely critical. Our political leaders have become in thrall to religious zealots in their eagerness to be seen to be protecting multiculturalism and tolerance.

The article notes that;

Anything which can be deemed "religious" is no longer allowed to be a subject of discussion at the UN – and almost everything is deemed religious. Roy Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union has tried to raise topics like the stoning of women accused of adultery or child marriage. The Egyptian delegate stood up to announce discussion of shariah "will not happen" and "Islam will not be crucified in this council" – and Brown was ordered to be silent. Of course, the first victims of locking down free speech about Islam with the imprimatur of the UN are ordinary Muslims.

Pointing out such developments is valid political debate - it is not about hurting the feelings of Muslims simply for the sake of causing offence. If discussion and free speech is being closed down around the world then we are indeed entering dark times. There is no protection for anyone in such a climate and the only winners will be those religious zealots who shout the loudest and threaten the most violence.

Full story here.

Islam Wilders and Political cowards

In a previous post I wrote about the strange logic of the Dutch decision to prosecute Geert Wilders for inciting racial hatred based on a film which criticised Islam. The furor surrounding Wilders and his film "Fitna" took another twist today when he was banned from entering the UK and attending a showing of his film in the UK House of Lords.
Follow this link to see the film Fitna at Wikileaks.
Fitna also available from Liveleaks
Warning: The film Fitna contains graphic scenes of the results of terrorist and Islamist actions.


The film itself juxtaposes footage of Islamic terrorist atrocities with excerpts from the Koran and shows how Islamic Militants use the Koran to justify hate crimes against the West. In a perverse twist of logic though Wilders finds himself banned from entering the UK because his presence might incite hatred. The reason for this? Well, seemingly because there were threats that thousands of Islamic militants would come out onto the streets to protest against his presence and against the screening.

The Dutch government have protested against the exclusion of Wilders and there have been many voices raised against what is being seen as a significant affront to freedom of speech in the UK. MP's have so far though been noticeably quite and absent from the debate and it's hard not to conclude that most of them are to put it bluntly political cowards.

Islamists have the political establishment in this country completely cowed. They are afraid to be seen to support or allow any criticism of Islam. They , like the Dutch, seem to confuse race and religion.

What is abundantly clear is that there is indeed among some sections of the Muslim community, both here and abroad, a current of hatred towards the west and all it stands for. Most of us know this already and the film "Fitna" merely illustrates this, albeit very graphically.

It is vital that this is subject to open and frank debate, not with the aim of demonising all Muslims but with the aim of showing how fundamentalists are using the Koranic texts to justify their evil hatred and the indoctrination of young muslims. If this is not exposed how can it be fought?

But our politicians are afraid of such open debate. They are afraid of allowing criticism of Islam to be aired in open debate in this country. They are cowards. They would rather surrender any defence of freedom of speech than be seen to support a challenge to Islamic fundamentalism.

Christmas greeting to all Islamic Fundamentalists

Merry Christmas to all Islamic Fundamentalists !

It was good to see that free expression is now alive and well in Iraq following the overthrow of the Sadaam Hussein regime. An Iraqi journalist expresssed his thanks to the US for overthrowing Sadaam ( well done lads) and for letting the country get out of control ( stupid b*****ds). He threw his shoe at Bush and called the president a dog. I can only assume he has ordered a container load of old shoes and puppies for delivery as a christmas gift to Al Qaeda's headquarters for the excellent work they have done this year in promoting the worldwide image of Islam; by shooting and bombing as many innocent people as they could.

Anyway in that spirit here is a little picture by way of a Christmas card for any Islamic fundamentalists out there. The message on the card reads;

Christmas is a time of caring and joys
Please spare a thought for your child bomber boys
Give them prezzies, food and hugs
Dont send them early to their grave like mugs.

Here's wishing you all, you Islamist dogs
A plague of locusts, boils and frogs
So a merry Christmas to Osama and crew
Your card has a dog and a shoe - up you!

BNP Membership list leaked Scottish members

The BNP (British national Party) an extreme right wing political party with allegedly racist views are complaining that their BNP membership list has been leaked by disaffected party members. Oddly the BNP which opposes Human Rights legislation is now claiming that the leaking of the list amounts to an infringement of the human rights of their members. Hypocrisy is clearly not something that the BNP are ashamed of.

The publishing of the list will lead to problems for members who are serving members of the police force as membership has been deemed incompatible with being a serving police officer. Also on the list are teachers and other public servants.

There are a number of names on the list of people who are residents in Ayrshire in particular in Ayr, Irvine and Kilmarnock and the list contains the names and addresses of BNP members from other parts of Scotland. I don't intend to directly publish these names and addresses here but if you are interested then the full list in text form can be downloaded from wikileaks BNP membership list download

Update: I managed to download the list earlier but Wikileaks has since been giving a server overloaded error so you may have difficulty getting hold of the list at the moment.

Do you have any views on the leaking of the BNP membership list? Please leave a comment here and a link to your site or blog.

Danish Cartoons reprinted Muslim protests awaited

The controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed have been re-printed by 11 Danish newspapers ( The Jyllands-Posten and other major newspapers - including Politiken and Berlingske Tidende) - reprinted the caricature in their Wednesday editions in a move of defiance and protest following the Danish police uncovering a plot to kill the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. The cartoonist and his wife have been under police protection connected with the Muhammed cartoons plot for three months.

The original publication of the Danish Muhammed cartoons which satirised the "peaceful" Islamic religion caused uproar around the Islamic world. Seemingly unaware that their actions simply reinforced the picture of Islam depicted by the cartoons, the Islamic world was full of fatwas and calls for the cartoonist and the newspaper editors to be beheaded.

The republishing of these cartoons is likely to be met with a similar response, as before, from around the Islamic world and we can expect to see street protests and much flag burning in the coming days. This will as usual be accompanied by the usual religious fatwas and death sentence pronouncements from fundamentalists within the Islamic religion. Again the irony of these reactions seem likely to be lost even on the majority within the Islamic community.

Religious sensibilities and the influence of religion on the conduct of life in the public sphere has been much in the news in recent days following the Archbishop of Canteburys ill -judged call for Sharia law to be given a more formal place within the framework of UK civil law.

This is a sensitive time for relations with the Muslim community, the majority of whom are no doubt decent and law abiding people.

The Archbishop of Cantebury had every right to raise the issues that he did, no matter that the majority of the population think his proposals foolish and dangerous. This is free speech. The publishing of the Danish cartoons must be seen in the same context, it is part of a difficult and sensitive debate about the role of religion and religious sensibilities in our modern society.

The reaction to the Archbishops call and the re-publishing of the Danish cartoons both give the same message - there is a ground swell of resistance to the influence and dangers posed by fundamentalist religious groups.

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Scientology officially a dangerous cult

Scientology is now officially a dangerous cult according to a recent search for the term Scientology on the Google search Engine.

As all Internet are aware Google is never wrong and is the fount of all pure human knowledge so if google says it's true then of course it must be.

This of course simply confirms what many people always knew but it will be a severe embarassment to the Scientology organisation which has been trying to obscure this.

"I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is."
- L. Ron Hubbard to Lloyd Eshbach, in 1949; quoted by Eshbach in OVER MY SHOULDER: REFLECTIONS ON A SCIENCE FICTION ERA, Donald M. Grant Publisher. 1983

L Ron Hubbard - what a guy eh?

Here's some more information which shows how rotten to the core Scientology is.

Justice for Burma!

Killed by the Burmese military. Shot for standing up for his rights and resisting an illegal military regime. This is the price ordinary people are paying in Burma as they try to assert themselves in the face of brutal oppression.

And what will world leaders do about this? Precious little. Certainly China and India who have the greatest chance of causing change will probably resist any real pressure being brought to bear on the regime.

The price of democracy and freedom down the years has often been the death of ordinary people as they stand up for their rights. The only comfort in all this is that we know that one day this regime will fall. It either goes now and the leaders may have some chance to save their own necks - or it falls in a more bloody confrontation and the military leaders will then suffer the fate of many such brutal dictators. Justice for Burma! Justice for the Burmese!

Picture from http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/

Turkey:Protests over suspected poisoning of Kurdish leader Ocalan

(Ap Photo - Turkish nationalists beating a demonstrator)

"If the allegations are true, it means that a planned murder is being consciously committed. Ocalan wields influence over the Kurdish people. If something bad happens, those who sympathise with him will react... Turkey will be faced with very serious dangers."~ Aysel Tugluk, DTP Co-Chairman.

Demonstrations have been taking place in Istanbul, Turkey over the suspected poisoning of Abdullah Ocalan the Kurdish leader who has been imprisoned by the Turkish state.
Full story at Rasti
Background and discussion on The struggle for Kurdish rights

Turkish court imprisons a man for a "Mr".

A court in Diyarbakir Turkey has sentenced Ahmet Turk, a Kurdish politician who leads a pro-Kurdish party, to 6 months in prison for referring to jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan as "Mr Ocalan".
The court ruled that the use of "Mr" by Ahmet Turk implied respect for Ocalan who is seen as a criminal in Turkey. He is reportedly considering an appeal.
Ocalan lead the Kurdish armed campaign in which more than 30,000 people died.
He was found guilty of treason and is serving a life sentence. Ahmet Turk was sentenced by the court in south-eastern Turkey on a charge of supporting a criminal in a speech he made in January 2006. Last week, Ahmet Turk - alongside with a DTP deputy leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) - was sentenced to 18 months in prison for distributing party materials in the Kurdish language. Turkish law allows distribution of political literature only in Turkish.

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford reported that more than 50 DTP members of the pro-Kurdish DTP have been arrested and at least seven senior officials charged in under a fortnight.
DTP officials argue there is a sustained campaign of harassment and that the authorities are trying to close the party down before a general election later this year.
The party is viewed by Turkish nationalists as closely tied to the Kurdish separatist cause.
DTP leaders say they want an end to violent conflict and support a united Turkey.

We cant shake of the feeling that Turkey is not yet quite ready for EU membership.

Iran President and Free Speech

It seems that the Iranian President is a little short in his understanding of the term free speech. He started his own blog recently but it ended up getting shut down by the very system that Iran uses to ensure that its people can not access the internet freely.

A spokesman for Mr. Ahmadinejad is reported as saying he fully supports the Council of Guardians efforts “to ensure that public discourse is pure and unadulterated by unauthorized free speech"

I am sure he said this with a straight face and with no comprehension of how ridiculous this looks.

Religious Hatred legislation - what nonsense

We were delighted by the news that the UK governments religious hatred Bill had suffered two defeats in the commons - although sadly this idiotic piece of legislation is still going ahead despite some amendment.
This legislation is a sop to all the looney religious fundamentalists out there whose religious beliefs are so fragile that they cannot stand up to the scrutiny of rigorous debate. This Blog for one intends to go down fighting though. We defend our right to describe religious beliefs for what they are - medieval and superstitious nonsense. This religious nonsense has been and is the cause of many of the worlds most enduring conflicts. We assert that those that swallow such religious nonsense are allowing themselves to be deluded by dangerous myths and fairy tales.

Recent years have seen the rise of two mirror image religious fundamentalisms - right wing christians who hold increasing sway in the United States and fundamentalist Muslim movements in many parts of the Muslim world. These two religions supposedly preach peace and brotherly love. Great eh? What do we see in reality? War, death , bigotry , intolerance, suicide bombings across the world, kidnappings, beheadings, oppression of women. Oh yes and a god of the Muslims who is apparently so feeble that he needs protected from some cartoons printed in Denmark. Is this the vision of the world that their God would have them create? If we believed in God we would be shouting "God help us, save us from your believers!"

So we assert our absolute right to criticise and mock the lunacy of any and all religious beliefs. To paraphrase an old saying " I will defend your right to hold your religious beliefs, but I am still entitled to tell you that you are a stupid plonker for believing them."