Geert Wilders Speech -- House of
Lords 05310
Home Truths from Abroad
House
of Lords, London
Mar 8, 2010
Thank you. It
is great to be back in London. And it is great that this time, I got
to see more of this wonderful city than just the detention centre at
Heathrow Airport.
Today I stand before you, in this extraordinary place. Indeed, this
is a sacred place. This is, as Malcolm always says, the mother of
all Parliaments, I am deeply humbled to have the opportunity to
speak before you.
Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for your invitation and showing
my film, Fitna. Thank you my friends for inviting me.
I first have great news. Last Wednesday city council elections were
held in the Netherlands. And for the first time my party, the
Freedom Party, took part in these local elections. We participated
in two cities. In Almere, one of the largest Dutch cities. And in
The Hague, the third largest city; home of the government, the
parliament and the queen. And, we did great! In one fell swoop my
party became the largest party in Almere and the second largest
party in The Hague. Great news for the Freedom Party and even better
news for the people of these two beautiful cities.
And I have more good news. Two weeks ago the Dutch government
collapsed. In June we will have parliamentary elections. And the
future for the Freedom Party looks great. According to some polls we
will become the largest party in the Netherlands. I want to be
modest, but who knows, I might even be Prime Minister in a few
months time!
Ladies and gentlemen, not far from here stands a statue of the
greatest Prime Minister your country ever had. And I would like to
quote him here today: “Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing
faith. No stronger retrograde force exists in the World. It has
already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors
at every step (…) the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as
fell the civilization of ancient Rome.” These words are from none
other than Winston Churchill wrote this in his book ‘The River War’
from 1899.
Churchill was right.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t have a problem and my party does not
have a problem with Muslims as such. There are many moderate
Muslims. The majority of Muslims are law-abiding citizens and want
to live a peaceful life as you and I do. I know that. That is why I
always make a clear distinction between the people, the Muslims, and
the ideology, between Islam and Muslims. There are many moderate
Muslims, but there is no such thing as a moderate Islam.
Islam strives for world domination. The Quran commands Muslims to
exercise jihad. The Quran commands Muslims to establish shariah law.
The Quran commands Muslims to impose Islam on the entire world.
As former Turkish Prime Minister Erbakan said: “The whole of Europe
will become Islamic. We will conquer Rome”. End of quote.
Libyan dictator Gaddafi said: “There are tens of millions of Muslims
in the European continent today and their number is on the increase.
This is the clear indication that the European continent will be
converted into Islam. Europe will one day soon be a Muslim
continent”. End of quote. Indeed, for once in his life, Gaddafi was
telling the truth. Because, remember: mass immigration and
demographics is destiny!
Islam is merely not a religion, it is mainly a totalitarian
ideology. Islam wants to dominate all aspects of life, from the
cradle to the grave. Shariah law is a law that controls every detail
of life in a Islamic society. From civic- and family law to criminal
law. It determines how one should eat, dress and even use the
toilet. Oppression of women is good, drinking alcohol is bad.
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. It are opposite values.
No wonder that Winston Churchill called Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’
“the new Quran of faith and war, turgid, verbose, shapeless, bur
pregnant with its message”. As you know, Churchill made this
comparison, between the Koran and Mein Kampf, in his book ‘The
Second World War’, a master piece, for which, he received the Nobel
Prize in Literature. Churchill’s comparison of the Quran and ‘Mein
Kampf’ is absolutely spot on. The core of the Quran is the call to
jihad. Jihad means a lot of things and is Arabic for battle. Kampf
is German for battle. Jihad and kampf mean exactly the same.
Islam means submission, there cannot be any mistake about its goal.
That’s a given. The question is whether we in Europe and you in
Britain, with your glorious past, will submit or stand firm for your
heritage.
We see Islam taking off in the West at an incredible pace. Europe is
Islamizing rapidly. A lot of European cities have enormous Islamic
concentrations. Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin are just a few
examples. In some parts of these cities, Islamic regulations are
already being enforced. Women’s rights are being destroyed. Burqa’s,
headscarves, polygamy, female genital mutilation, honour-killings.
Women have to go to separate swimming-classes, don’t get a
handshake. In many European cities there is already apartheid. Jews,
in an increasing number, are leaving Europe.
As you undoubtedly all know, better then I do, also in your country
the mass immigration and islamization has rapidly increased. This
has put an enormous pressure on your British society. Look what is
happening in for example Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford and here in
London. British politicians who have forgotten about Winston
Churchill have now taken the path of least resistance. They have
given up. They have given in.
Last year, my party has requested the Dutch government to make a
cost-benefit analysis of the mass immigration. But the government
refused to give us an answer. Why? Because it is afraid of the
truth. The signs are not good. A Dutch weekly magazine - Elsevier -
calculated costs to exceed 200 billion Euros. Last year alone, they
came with an amount of 13 billion Euros. More calculations have been
made in Europe: According to the Danish national bank, every Danish
immigrant from an Islamic country is costing the Danish state more
than 300 thousand Euros. You see the same in Norway and France. The
conclusion that can be drawn from this: Europe is getting more
impoverished by the day. More impoverished thanks to mass
immigration. More impoverished thanks to demographics. And the
leftists are thrilled.
I don't know whether it is true, but in several British newspapers I
read that Labour opened the door to mass immigration in a deliberate
policy to change the social structures of the UK. Andrew Neather, a
former government advisor and speech writer for Tony Blair and Jack
Straw, said the aim of Labour’s immigration strategy was, and I
quote, to “rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their
arguments out of date”. If this is true, this is symptomatic of the
Left.
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.
Why I ask myself, why have the Leftists and liberals stopped to
fight for them? Once the Leftists stood on the barricades for
women’s rights. But where are they today? Where are they in 2010?
They are looking the other way. Because they are addicted to
cultural relativism and dependent on the Muslim vote. They are
dependent on mass-immigration.
Thank heavens Jacqui Smith isn’t in office anymore. It was a victory
for free speech that a UK judge brushed aside her decision to refuse
me entry to your country last year. I hope that the judges in my
home country are at least as wise and will acquit me of all charges,
later this year in the Netherlands.
Unfortunately, so far they have not done so well. For they do not
want to hear the truth about Islam, nor are they interested to hear
the opinion of top class legal experts in the field of freedom of
expression. Last month in a preliminary session the Court refused
fifteen of the eighteen expert-witnesses I had requested to be
summoned.
Only three expert witnesses are allowed to be heard. Fortunately, my
dear friend and heroic American psychiatrist dr. Wafa Sultan is one
of them. But their testimony will be heard behind closed doors.
Apparently the truth about Islam must not be told in public, the
truth about Islam must remain secret.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m being prosecuted for my political beliefs.
We know political prosecution to exist in countries in the Middle
East, like Iran and Saudi-Arabia, but never in Europe, never in the
Netherlands.
I’m being prosecuted for comparing the Quran to ‘Mein Kampf’.
Ridiculous. I wonder if Britain will ever put the beliefs of Winston
Churchill on trial… Ladies and gentlemen, the political trial that
is held against me has to stop.
But it is not all about me, not about Geert Wilders. Free speech is
under attack. Let me give you a few other examples. As you perhaps
know, one of my heroes, the Italian author Oriana Fallaci had to
live in fear of extradition to Switzerland because of her anti-Islam
book 'The Rage and the Pride'. The Dutch cartoonist Nekschot was
arrested in his home in Amsterdam by 10 police men because of his
anti-Islam drawings. Here in Britain, the American author Rachel
Ehrenfeld was sued by a Saudi businessman for defamation. In the
Netherlands Ayaan Hirsi Ali and in Australia two Christian pastors
were sued. I could go on and on. Ladies and gentlemen, all
throughout the West freedom loving people are facing this ongoing
‘legal jihad’. This is Islamic ‘lawfare’. And, ladies and gentlemen,
not long ago the Danish cartoonist Westergaard was almost
assassinated for his cartoons.
Ladies and gentlemen, we should defend the right to freedom of
speech. With all our strength. With all our might. Free speech is
the most important of our many liberties. Free speech is the
cornerstone of our modern societies. Freedom of speech is the breath
of our democracy, without freedom of speech our way of life our
freedom will be gone.
I believe it is our obligation to preserve the inheritance of the
brave young soldiers that stormed the beaches of Normandy. That
liberated Europe from tyranny. These heroes cannot have died for
nothing. It is our obligation to defend freedom of speech. As George
Orwell said: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right
to tell people what they do not want to hear”.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe in another policy, it is time for
change. We must make haste. We can’t wait any longer. Time is
running out. If I may quote one of my favourite American presidents:
Ronald Reagan once said: “We need to act today, to preserve
tomorrow”. That is why I propose the following measures, I only
mention a few, in order to preserve our freedom:
First, we will have to defend freedom of speech. It is the most
important of our liberties. In Europe and certainly in the
Netherlands, we need something like the American First Amendment.
Second, we will have to end and get rid of cultural relativism. To
the cultural relativists, the shariah socialists, I proudly say: Our
Western culture is far superior to the Islamic culture. Don't be
affraid to say it. You are not a racist when you say that our own
culture is better.
Third, we will have to stop mass immigration from Islamic countries.
Because more Islam means less freedom.
Fourth, we will have to expel criminal immigrants and, following
denaturalisation, we will have to expel criminals with a dual
nationality. And there are many of them in my country.
Fifth, we will have to forbid the construction of new mosques. There
is enough Islam in Europe. Especially since Christians in Turkey,
Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia are mistreated, there
should be a mosque building-stop in the West.
And last but not least, we will have to get rid of all those
so-called leaders. I said it before: Fewer Chamberlains, more
Churchills. Let's elect real leaders.
Ladies and gentlemen. To the previous generation, that of my
parents, the word ‘London’ is synonymous with hope and freedom. When
my country was occupied by the national-socialists the BBC offered a
daily glimpse of hope in my country, in the darkness of Nazi
tyranny. Millions of my fellow country men listened to it,
underground. The words ‘This is London’ were a symbol for a better
world coming soon.
What will be broadcasted forty years from now? Will it still be
“This is London”? Or will it be “This is Londonistan”? Will it bring
us hope? Or will it signal the values of Mecca and Medina? Will
Britain offer submission or perseverance? Freedom or slavery? The
choice is yours. And in the Netherlands the choice is ours.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will never apologize for being free. We
will and should never give in. And, indeed, as one of your former
leaders said: We will never surrender.
Freedom must prevail, and freedom will prevail.
Thank you very much.