Geert Wilders kicked out of the UK after landing

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 12:56 pm

Looks like free speech is dead in the UK.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Re ... 7D645E19B6

On Thursday, February 12, visiting Dutch politician Geert Wilders was humiliatingly bundled back on to a plane to his native Holland shortly after arriving in London. Wilders had been invited to show his controversial, 17-minute documentary film, Fitna, in Britain’s House of Lords but was warned in a letter from the British Home Office last Tuesday he would be denied entry to the country. As reasons for his being declared persona non grata, Wilders was told in the letter he would “threaten community harmony and therefore public security.” The directive never stated, however, that the statements Wilders made in Fitna are false or misleading in any way.

A Muslim lord, Nazir Ahmed, and other Muslim leaders had vigorously protested Wilders’ visit, causing an initial invitation to be rescinded. It was reported that Ahmed had even threatened to mobilize 10,000 fellow Muslims to block Wilders from entering Westminster, a report Ahmed now denies. A cooler-headed peer, Lord Pearson, appalled at this attack on free speech, reissued the invitation to Wilders.

Daring the British government to put him in handcuffs, Wilders defiantly flew to Heathrow airport with the new invitation in his pocket. During the flight, Wilders expressed his opinion of Britain’s Labour government and its attempt to block his entry, telling the TimesOnline that it was now “more Chamberlain than Churchill.”

“I am a democrat, I am serving free speech,” said Wilders. “They are not only being nasty to me, they are being nasty to freedom of speech.”
But even Chamberlain would have been dismayed to see an elected democrat like Wilders, the leader of Holland’s liberal Freedom Party and the first European Union politician ever denied access to Great Britain, escorted by two plain-clothed guards across the tarmac to the border agency office. According to the Times story, the British security men were holding Wilders so tightly, one of Wilders’ personal bodyguards asked them to relax their grips. Wilders was subsequently put into a detention center for two hours before being unceremoniously deported back to Holland.

Many people in Britain, among them those who disagree with Fitna, are outraged that a democratically elected member of European parliament was refused admittance to their country after having been invited by the House of Lords. If free speech does not exist there, in Britain’s highest democratic institution, some have asked, then where does it exist in Great Britain?

brembo · Post by **brembo** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:12 pm

UK has always been tighter laced than the US.

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:22 pm

brembo wrote:UK has always been tighter laced than the US.

They invited him to speak, and then they turn around and kick him out.

mountainman · Post by **mountainman** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:27 pm

Apparently Lord Pearson doesn't speak for the entire country.

tarpoon75 · Post by **tarpoon75** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:55 pm

So I watched the film, and not sure how real of an issue they have in Holland. But it seems like they feel like they are losing their identity to Islam fundamentalists, and fear what may happen if they "take over the world."

I'm not sure why they were not allowing him to show the film, but Britain must have a ton of Muslims with powerful ties, to stop the showing of the film.

Brave new world, yay.

Oh, and first glance I was wondering what Gene Wilder was doing to pi$$ of the Brits.

brembo · Post by **brembo** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:23 pm

tarpoon75 wrote:
Oh, and first glance I was wondering what Gene Wilder was doing to pi$$ of the Brits.

"Hey boys! Look what I got here"

*pulls Muslim from behind big rock*

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:00 pm

So basically they are just trying to keep the tensions down by not letting this anti-islamic polotician speak?

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:00 pm

Joe wrote:So basically they are just trying to keep the tensions down by not letting this anti-islamic polotician speak?

Is it ok to censor tension? Did you ask yourself that question before you posted? Is so, what was your answer?

stevebakh · Post by **stevebakh** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 5:05 pm

Whilst he's a bigotted, racist buffoon, refusing him entry gave him and his "documentary" more publicity than he could ever have hoped for.

I think a good many islamic community leaders and such thought the same - some were interviewed on the news. It's ironic really.

Mr Wilders, who faces trial in his own country for inciting hatred, caused outrage across the Muslim world last year when he posted his film, Fitna, on the internet.

...

But Mr Portillo expressed concerns those who did attend would not be the only people to view it.

Speaking on BBC1's This Week, he said the MP held "unattractive" opinions but had he been allowed in he would have arrived "unnoticed to show his film to 30 fairly eccentric peers".

Instead, he said, he has become a "globally famous figure" with thousands of people going on the internet to watch the film.

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 6:33 pm

stevebakh wrote:Whilst he's a bigotted, racist buffoon, refusing him entry gave him and his "documentary" more publicity than he could ever have hoped for.

I think a good many islamic community leaders and such thought the same - some were interviewed on the news. It's ironic really.

Steve, there's Islam...and then there's radical Islam. What this did is prove that you can't speak out against radical Islam.....which preaches fundamentalism as well as racism. This reminds me of the death threats against Rushdie....for writing a book.

Other people have been freely calling for his murder/decapitation....is that protected speech?

stevebakh · Post by **stevebakh** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:47 pm

UOD wrote:Steve, there's Islam...and then there's radical Islam. What this did is prove that you can't speak out against radical Islam.....which preaches fundamentalism as well as racism. This reminds me of the death threats against Rushdie....for writing a book.

Other people have been freely calling for his murder/decapitation....is that protected speech?

I'm not disagreeing with you. I don't think his entry should have been banned. I understand why it happened though and I also appreciate the difficulty in trying to be consistent with refusing entry to certain individuals.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:23 pm

UOD wrote:Is it ok to censor tension? Did you ask yourself that question before you posted? Is so, what was your answer?

If preventing him from igniting tension between people that might potentially cause suicide bombings and other such terrorist attacks requires denial of entry I am all for it.

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:49 pm

Joe wrote:If preventing him from igniting tension between people that might potentially cause suicide bombings and other such terrorist attacks requires denial of entry I am all for it.

You're not serious right?