Geert Wilders On Trial

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/geert-wilderss-speech-at-his-trial-today.html
Jihad Watch also has a five minute video in addition to the transcript.

Update 12/15/11:  While Wilders was acquitted in the second trial, Muslims are dragging the case into the U.N.  Since Fitna continues to be an exemplar of the subject matter the OIC seeks to outlaw, this subject retains its vitality.

 

The trial of Geert Wilders began January 20 ’10  and will resume February 3 unless the judge acts affirmatively on Wilders’ motion for dismissal.
At the opening of his trial, Geert Wilders spoke briefly. Two paragraphs stand out from the rest

Future generations will wonder to themselves how we in 2010, in this place, in this room, earned our most precious attainment. Whether there is freedom in this debate for both parties and thus also for the critics of Islam, or that only one side of the discussion may be heard in the Netherlands? Whether freedom of speech in the Netherlands applies to everyone or only to a few? The answer to this is at once the answer to the question whether freedom still has a home in this country.

Freedom was never the property of a small group, but was always the heritage of us all. We are all blessed by it.

As I interpret it, Geert Wilders is referring to the great risk that freedom of expression will be lost, never to be recovered, in which case future generations may take a very dim view of our generation. He also raises the issue of special privilege, the exalted status asserted by Islam.

It is not only a right, but also the duty of free people to speak against every ideology that threatens freedom. Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States was right: The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

He characterized Islam as an ideology that threatens freedom, and postulated a right and duty to speak out against it. This raises  necessity as a defense. In his concluding remarks, he expressed hope that the court will allow him to call witnesses who will testify about Islam’s threat to liberty and to the truthfulness of his documentary and speeches. Thus he also raised the truth defense. If what he said is objectively true, it can not be  slander  or defamation.

The importance of this trial can not be exaggerated. Freedom of expression is at risk. While it may be lost to Holland in this trial,  this trial may set a precedent for similar trials elsewhere in Europe and perhaps even in the United States.

The ayat quoted by Wilders in Fitna and his speech to the Dutch Parliament were documented in a previous post, part of which is  reproduced below, slightly edited.  The cited ayat are listed and quoted with links to Ibn Kathir’s Tafsir.  Reasonable people, reading this evidence, can only conclude that Wilders told the truth; that his speech and documentary are factual, neither slanderous nor defaming to Islam.
In  a recent address to the Dutch Parliament, Geert Wilders cited the following  ayat, some but not all of which are quoted in his movie, Fitna.

• 2:65
• 2:191
• 3:141
• 4:56
• 4:91
• 5:3
• 5:60
• 7:166
• 8:39
• 9:29 [mis-numbered as 9:30]
• 47:4
• 69:30-69:32

Each of the above listed ayat is linked to ten parallel translations.

This is the  text of the violent ayat in the list above: [Links to Ibn Kathir’s Tafsir supplied when available.]

• • 2:191 And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have Turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith. [Abdullah Yusuf Ali]
    • Righteousness comes from Taqwa
    • The Command to fight Those Who fight Muslims and killing Them wherever They are found
    • Fighting in the Sacred Months
    • This is the Ayah of the Sword
  • 3:139-141 So do not become weak (against your enemy), nor be sad, and you will be superior (in victory) if you are indeed (true) believers. If a wound hath touched you, be sure a similar wound hath touched the others. Such days (of varying fortunes) We give to men and men by turns: that God may know those that believe, and that He may take to Himself from your ranks Martyr-witnesses (to Truth). And God loveth not those that do wrong.  And that Allah may test (or purify) the believers (from sins) and destroy the disbelievers. [Hilali &Khan]
    • The Encouragment to Do Good for which Paradise is the Result
    • The Muslim believes in all that Allah `revealed and all the Prophets
  • 4:91 Ye will find others who seek to gain your confidence as well as that of their own people: So oft as they return to sedition, they shall be overthrown in it: But if they leave you not, nor propose terms or peace to you nor withhold their hands, then seize them, and slay them, wherever ye find them. Over these have we given you undoubted power.[Rodwell]
  • 8:39And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshipping others besides Allah) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allah Alone [in the whole of the world]. But if they cease (worshipping others besides Allah), then certainly, Allah is All-Seer of what they do.[Hilali & Khan]
    • The Order to fight to eradicate Shirk and Kufr
    • The Order to fight until there is no more Fitnah
    • Righteousness comes from Taqwa
  • 9:29Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His Apostle have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled.[Rodwell]
    • The Order to fight People of the Scriptures until They give the Jizyah
  • 47:4When ye encounter the infidels, strike off their heads till ye have made a great slaughter among them, and of the rest make fast the fetters. And afterwards let there either be free dismissals or ransomings, till the war hath laid down its burdens. Thus do. Were such the pleasure of God, he could himself take vengeance upon them: but He would rather prove the one of you by the other. And whoso fight for the cause of God, their works he will not suffer to miscarry;[Rodwell]
    • Muslims invoke Allah for Help, Allah sends the Angels to help Them

  Riyad us-Salaheen, Book 11, Ch. 234 cites  many ahadith in proving the obligation of Jihad. It does not mention the above cited ayat, but does cite several others.  Reliance of the Traveler specifically offers 9:29 as  justification for declaring war on Jews and Christians.

  O-9.8: The Objectives of Jihad
  The caliph (o-25) makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians (N: provided he has first invited them to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya, def: o-11.4) -which is the significance of their paying it, not the money itself-while remaining in their ancestral religions) (O: and the war continues) until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax (O: in accordance with the word of Allah Most High,
  “Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day and who forbid not what Allah and His messenger have forbidden-who do not practice the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book-until they pay the poll tax out of hand and are humbled” (Koran 9.29)