Muslims Debate asked Mr. Geert Wilders why he became anti-Islam and what is his
message to the Muslims?
Geert Wilders:
I first visited an Islamic country in 1982. I was 18 years old and had
traveled with a Dutch friend from Eilat in Israel to the
Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh.
We were two almost penniless backpacking students. We slept on the beaches
and found hospitality with Egyptians, who spontaneously invited us to tea. I
clearly recall my very first impression of Egypt: I was overwhelmed by the
kindness, friendliness and helpfulness of its people.
I also remember my second strong impression of Egypt: It struck me how
frightened these friendly and kind people were.
While we were in Sharm el-Sheikh, President Mubarak
happened to visit the place.
I remember the fear which suddenly engulfed the town when it was announced
that Mubarak was coming on an unexpected visit; I can still see the cavalcade
of black cars on the day of his visit and feel the almost physical awareness
of fear, like a cold chill on that very hot day in Summer.
It was a weird experience; Mubarak is not considered the worst of the Islamic
tyrants and yet, the fear of the ordinary Egyptians for their leader could be
felt even by me. I wonder how Saudis feel when their King is in town, how
Libyans feel when Gaddafi announces his coming, how Iraqis must have felt
when Saddam Hussein was near. A few years later, I read in the Koran how the
7th century Arabs felt in the presence of Muhammad, who, as several verses
describe, “cast terror into their hearts” (suras
8:12, 8:60, 33:26, 59:12).
From Sharm el-Sheikh, my friend and I went to Cairo. It was poor and
incredibly dirty. My friend and I were amazed that such a poor and filthy
place could be a neighbor of Israel,
which was so clean. The explanation of the Arabs, with whom we discussed
their poverty, was that they were not in any way to blame for this
affliction: They said they were the victims of a global conspiracy of
“imperialists” and “Zionists”, aimed at keeping Muslims poor and subservient.
I found that explanation unconvincing. My instinct told me it had something
to do with the different cultures of Israel
and Egypt.
I made a mistake in Cairo.
We had almost no money and I was thirsty. One could buy a glass of water at
public water collectors. It did not look clean, but I drank it. I got a
terrible diarrhea. I went to a hostel where one could rent a spot on the
floor for two dollars a day. There I lay for several days, a heap of misery
in a crowded, stinking room, with ten other guys. Once Egypt had
been the most advanced civilization on earth. Why had it not progressed along
with the rest of the world?
In the late 1890s, Winston Churchill was a soldier and a war correspondent in
British India (contemporary Pakistan)
and the Sudan.
Churchill was a perceptive young man, whose months
in Pakistan and the Sudan allowed
him to grasp with amazing clarity what the problem is with Islam and “the
curses it lays on its votaries.
“Besides the fanatical frenzy, …, there is this
fearful fatalistic apathy,” he wrote. “The effects are apparent in many
countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish
methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist where the followers of
the Prophet rule or live. … The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must
belong to a sole 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 – but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social
development of those who follow it.” And Churchill concluded: “No stronger
retrograde force exists in the world.”
There are people who say that I hate Muslims. I do not hate Muslims. It
saddens me how Islam has robbed them of their dignity.What
Islam does to Muslims is visible in the way they treat their daughters. On
March 11, 2002, fifteen Saudi schoolgirls died as they attempted to flee from
their school in the holy city of Mecca.
A fire had set the building ablaze. The girls ran to the school gates but
these were locked. The keys were in the possession of a male guard, who
refused to open the gates because the girls were not wearing the correct
Islamic dress imposed on women by Saudi law: face veils and overgarments.
The “indecently” dressed girls frantically tried to save their young lives.
The Saudi police beat them back into the burning building. Officers of the Mutaween, the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and
the Prevention of Vice,” as the Police are known in Saudi Arabia,
also beat passers-by and firemen who tried to help the girls. “It is sinful
to approach them,” the policemen warned bystanders. It is not only sinful, it is also a criminal offence.
Girls are not valued highly in Islam; the Koran says that the birth of a
daughter makes a father’s “face darken and he is filled with gloom” (sura 43:17). Nevertheless, the incident at the Mecca school drew angry
reactions. Islam is inhumane; but Muslims are humans, hence capable of Love –
that powerful force which Muhammad despised. Humanity prevailed in the Meccan fathers who were incensed over the deaths of their
daughters; it also prevailed in the firemen who confronted the Mutaween when the latter were beating the girls back
inside, and in the journalists of the Saudi paper which, for the first time
in Saudi history, criticized the much feared and powerful “Commission for the
Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.”
However, Muslim protests against Islamic inhumanity are rare. Most Muslims,
even in Western countries, visit mosques and listen to shocking Koranic verses and to repulsive sermons without revolting
against them.
I am an agnosticus myself. But Christians and Jews
hold that God created man in His image. They believe that by observing
themselves, as free and rational beings capable of love, they can come to
know Him. They can even reason with Him, as the Jews have done throughout
their history. The Koran, on the contrary, states that “Nothing can be
compared with Allah” (sura 16:74, 42:11). He has
absolutely nothing in common with us. It is preposterous to suppose that
Allah created man in his image. The biblical concept that God is our father
is not found in Islam. There is no personal relationship between man and
Allah, either. The purpose of Islam is the total submission of oneself and
others to the unknowable Allah, whom we must serve through total obedience to
Muhammad as leader of the Islamic state (suras
3:31, 4:80, 24:62, 48:10, 57:28). And history has taught us that Muhammad was
not at all a prophet of love and compassion, but a mass murderer, a tyrant
and a pedophile. Muslims could not have a more deplorable role model.
Without individual freedom, it is not surprising that the notion of man as a
responsible agent is not much developed in Islam. Muslims tend to be very
fatalistic. Perhaps – let us certainly hope so – only a few radicals take the
Koranic admonition to wage jihad on the unbelievers
seriously. Nevertheless, most Muslims never raise their voice against the
radicals. This is the “fearful fatalistic apathy” Churchill referred to.
The author Aldous Huxley, who lived in North Africa in the 1920s, made the following
observation: “About the immediate causes of things – precisely how they
happen – they seem to feel not the slightest interest. Indeed, it is not even
admitted that there are such things as immediate causes: God is directly
responsible for everything. ‘Do you think it will rain?’ you ask pointing to
menacing clouds overhead. ‘If God wills,’ is the answer. You pass the native
hospital. ‘Are the doctors good?’ ‘In our country,’ the Arab gravely replies,
in the tone of Solomon, ‘we say that doctors are of no avail. If Allah wills
that a man die, he will die. If not, he will recover.’ All of which is
profoundly true, so true, indeed, that is not worth saying. To the Arab,
however, it seems the last word in human wisdom. ... They have relapsed – all
except those who are educated according to Western methods – into
pre-scientific fatalism, with its attendant incuriosity and apathy.”
Islam deprives Muslims of their freedom. That is a shame, because free people
are capable of great things, as history has shown. The Arab, Turkish,
Iranian, Indian, Indonesian peoples have tremendous potential. It they were
not captives of Islam, if they could liberate themselves from the yoke of
Islam, if they would cease to take Muhammad as a role model and if they got
rid of the evil Koran, they would be able to achieve great things which would
benefit not only them but the entire world.
As a Dutch, a European and a Western politician, my responsibility is
primarily to the Dutch people, to the Europeans and the West. However, since
the liberation of the Muslims from Islam, will benefit all of us, I
wholeheartedly support Muslims who love freedom. My message to them is clear:
“Fatalism is no option; ‘Inch’ Allah’ is a curse; Submission is a disgrace.
Free yourselves. It is up to you.
Geert Wilders
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