Posted on Monday, June 09, 2008 - 12:39 pm:

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Correct, the crime is attributable to the individual committing it, not their religion.

Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 8:10 am:

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Ladies and gentlemen,

I am very honoured indeed to have been invited by the Danish Free Press Society to speak in the Danish Parliament, the heart of Danish democracy.

As you may know, the title of my short film about the Koran and Islam is Fitna. Fitna is an Arabic word with many meanings. The most common translation is ‘ordeal’ or ‘trial’. The name Fitna symbolises my view that Islam is the ordeal with which the free West is currently confronted. Are we prepared to defend our achievements, such as the equality of men and women, of heterosexuals and homosexuals as well as the separation of Church and State? I would like to throw some light today on the question of whether the Netherlands and Europe will be able to face that ordeal and stand the test. I will also address the question of why I made Fitna, and relate to you some of the reactions to my film as well as some of my personal circumstances. Lastly, I will offer you some thoughts on the future for freedom and democracy in Europe.

Let me first explain to you why I made Fitna.

It is an indisputable fact that the Netherlands and Europe are in the process of being Islamised. For those who still doubt whether this is actually so, let me give you a few figures. In 1909, a century ago now, there were fifty-four Muslims living in the Netherlands, in 1960 there were thirteen hundred and ninety-nine, in 1990 four hundred and fifty eight thousand, and currently about one million. In France approximately ten percent of the population are Muslims. A total of fifty-four million Muslims live in Europe. In less than half a century the number of Muslims has increased considerably in practically all of Europe. Within a few decades the street scenes in Europe, particularly in the densely populated parts, have drastically changed. In countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark headscarves and burkahs have now become integrated and are part of our daily experience.

However, the Islamisation of Europe encompasses much more than that. It also affects the European achievements of the last century. It is sad to see that the equality of men and women in the Europe of 2008 is under pressure. Take for example the rise in the number of honour killings, or attempts to introduce sharia wills and testaments – which award women with half of what men receive – or the refusal by radical Muslims to shake hands with women. The same applies to the equality of heterosexuals and homosexuals. In Amsterdam, once the gay capital of the world, gay men are regularly beaten up, not infrequently by Moroccans.

In trying to find an explanation for the Islamic intolerance and hatred against our whole way of life and the West as such, some take the view that it must be the result of the prior European colonisation of the Arabic-Muslim world. Others name the American-British attack on the Iraq of Saddam Hussein, the presence of NATO troops in Afghanistan, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a possible cause. Poverty in the Muslim world is also frequently mentioned. However, in my opinion, none of these factors really explains the issue.

I am convinced that the explanation is Islam as such. The core of Islam is the seventh-century Koran, as well as the life of the prophet Mohammed. The Koran is very different from the Bible, in that it contains commands and injunctions that are neither place- nor time-bound. This means that the calls to Muslims to kill non-Muslims (to be found, for example, in sura 4 verse 89 and sura 47 verse 4), or to terrorise non-Muslims (sura 8 verse 60), as well as the duty to wage war (for example, sura 8 verse 39) – in other words, the jihad – apply directly to the Muslims of today. The judgment on the Jews which the Koran delivers up to three times (sura 2 verse 65, sura 5 verse 60 and sura 7 verse 166), namely that they are monkeys and pigs, is not time-bound either, so it applies equally in 2008.

I have read the Koran several times now and every time I come to the conclusion that the Koran calls for hatred, violence, submission, murder and terrorism, and, moreover, that this is not confined to the seventh century either. Again and again I come to the conclusion that the Koran is not only a book of war, but that there is an inseparable connection between the Koran and Islam as such, and the atrocities committed by Muslims.

Apart from the Koran, the life of the Prophet Mohammed plays a crucial part as well. Mohammed was involved in a large number of bloody wars, anywhere between twenty-five and thirty of them. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, especially in his Medina-time, how he had enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed ruled over Mecca and Medina and subsequently the entire Arabic peninsula. The brave apostate Wafa Sultan said: “The problem is that de Koran clearly says that Mohammed should be a role model for every Muslim. You are not allowed to criticise him, but you should follow in his footsteps. As a Muslim it is your mission to spread Islam by the sword”.

In fact Islam is an ideology rather than a religion. It is a system that lays down rules and regulations for socio-political life. Islamic law, the sharia, not only legislates in criminal matters but also, for example, in the areas of personal and family law. The Belgian Professor of Islamic Studies, Urbain Vermeulen, once said that Islam is ten percent religion and ninety percent ideology. Of course, there is nothing wrong with ideologies as such, take liberalism for example. But an ideology is wrong if it is totalitarian. As a matter of fact, Islamic ideology shows striking similarities with communism and fascism. One could mention its anti-democratic character, the will to exercise total control over social life and the use of violence to subject dissenters. In fact, the Islamic ideology is totalitarian in character. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy. I want to emphasize that I am not talking about the people, the Muslims, but about the Islamic ideology.

I have warned against the dangers of the Koran and Islam in numerous interviews, opinion articles, speeches and, of course parliamentary debates, but a single picture often says more than a thousand words. That is why I decided last year to put my views on Islam and the Koran into a short film. This resulted in the Fitna premiere at the end of March. Without putting all Muslims into the same category, I hope I have succeeded in showing that the Koran is not some dusty old book, but that it is used today as a source of inspiration for, and justification of, hatred, violence and terrorism in the world; in Europe, in the Netherlands and in Denmark.

Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 8:27 am:

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Abu Hafss is not happy.

A year after Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip, Abu Hafss is waiting impatiently to see a sword remove the hand of a thief or a woman stoned to death for adultery.

“Hamas does not implement the rule of God,” the Palestinian ally of al Qaeda said. “We have seen no one have his hand cut off for stealing. We have seen no one stoned as an adulterer.”

Yet for all Abu Hafss’ disappointment with the approach Hamas has adopted since it routed secular rivals in Gaza a year ago, some analysts believe smaller, more radical groups like Abu Hafss’ secretive Jaysh al-Ummah (Army of the Nation) have benefited from the Hamas takeover to expand their membership.

Despite an official Hamas policy of respecting the rights of Gaza’s small Christian minority, there has been an increase in attacks on Christians in the past year, apparently by Islamists not content with the extent of Hamas’s “Islamisation” of Gaza.

Posted on Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 8:38 am:

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The men who pulled up in three white pickup trucks were looking for Patson Chipiro, head of the Zimbabwean opposition party in Mhondoro district. His wife, Dadirai, told them he was in Harare but would be back later in the day, and the men departed.

An hour later they were back. They grabbed Mrs Chipiro and chopped off one of her hands and both her feet. Then they threw her into her hut, locked the door and threw a petrol bomb through the window.

The killing last Friday – one of the most grotesque atrocities committed by Robert Mugabe’s regime since independence in 1980 – was carried out on a wave of worsening brutality before the run-off presidential elections in just over two weeks. It echoed the activities of Foday Sankoh, the rebel leader in the Sierra Leone civil war that ended in 2002, whose trade-mark was to chop off hands and feet.

Mrs Chipiro, 45, a former pre-school teacher, was the second wife of a junior official of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) burnt alive last Friday by Zanu (PF) militiamen. Pamela Pasvani, the 21-year-old pregnant wife of a local councillor in Harare, did not suffer mutilation but died later of her burns; his six-year-old son perished in the flames.

Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - 8:49 am:

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A leader of Malaysia's Islamist party wants its secular allies to apply strict Sharia law in the country.

The hardline Parti Islam se-Malaysia, which made strong gains in March elections, has enacted laws in five states to punish rapists and adulterers with stoning to death.

Thieves would have hands and arms cut off.

However, the country's federal government has barred the party from enforcing the laws.

PAS and other opposition parties wrested control of five of Malaysia's 13 states in the March election.

Half of Malaysia's 26 million people are ethnic Malays, who are regarded as Muslims.