Geert Wilders, a Dutch parliamentarian, is threatened to be killed by Islamist terrorists. Who has to spend nights in prison: Mr. Wilders or the terrorists? Daniel Schwammenthal of Wall Street Journal Europe * has the answer:
“Mr. Wilders has been living under 24-hour police protection ever since the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh two years ago. The Dutch-Moroccan who stabbed and shot van Gogh in Amsterdam left death threats behind against him and the Netherlands’ other, more famous critic of Islam: Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Like the Somali-born politician, Mr. Wilders has had to take refuge in army barracks, safe houses, even a prison cell.” (…)
“Is there outrage in the Netherlands about his situation? He first avoids a direct answer. “This is now, today, my problem but in a larger sense it is also a problem for democracy, the rule of law,” he said. When pressed on the point, his response paints a troubling picture. “Real outrage? No. There was more outrage when a major paper once wrote how much the security for Ayaan and me costs,” he said. “There were times when Ayaan and I said to one another and sometimes to the public, ‘In what country do we live that things that are clearly not normal are almost being seen as normal or more or less ignored in public discussion and public life?’”
You don’t have to share Mr. Wilders’s views to realize that the threats against his life also threaten Dutch democracy. And yet the Dutch seem indifferent to his plight.” (…)
“The rest of the Continent is not much different. Each terror attack or death threat briefly fills the airwaves before Europeans again pretend everything is normal. Meanwhile, the list of dissidents like Mr. Wilders is growing. Recent additions include Robert Redeker, a French philosophy teacher, in hiding since his September op-ed criticizing Islam, and Ekin Deligoez, a German member of parliament of Turkish descent. She has been put under police protection last month after receiving death threats for suggesting that Muslim women abandon the veil.
Europeans can keep pretending all this is normal. But only until the day they find their names on that dissident list as well.”
That is so true, it almost hurts.