Geert Wilders to be Sued in France

Hat tip: Keep Tony Blair for PM

It never rains but it pours for poor old Geert Wilders. It has emerged within the past couple of days that a French 'human rights group' wishes to sue Mr Wilders for a speech he made in New York in which he 'incited racial hatred' in France.

As far as I can tell, this is another attempt to silence Mr Wilders and his compulsive truth-telling.

How did he incite racial hatred in France all the way from New York? You may well ask.

He told the audience some rather unpalatable things about the current situation in France - but as far as I can gather, they are all true.

This does not seem to matter to the Association for the Defence of Human Rights - it's lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou told AFP that "the remarks made by Mr. Wilders target a specific community, Muslims, and that comes within the context of inciting racial hatred. A politician may express his idea. But Wilders makes dangerous statements about something of which he has no understanding. These are not political ideas, but insults and prejudices."

Just what were these incendiary, controversial remarks of which he has so little understanding?

Mr Wilders said that Paris was 'encircled by Muslim districts'. This is true, and I would recommend Theodore Dalrymple's excellent essay on the Banlieues, 'Barbarians at the Gates of Paris'.

Strangely, despite the provocative title, despite him acknowledging the existence of a parallel universe and the same social problems as Wilders, I'm not sure he was ever contacted by Mse Bouzrou - his letter must have got lost in the post, surely.

Wilders also said that "numerous areas (in France) were no-go zones for women not wearing headscarves," and that "in France, teachers are asked to avoid authors considered offensive towards Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot". He also called the 2005 riots by largely Muslim youths an 'intifada'.

I've heard similar stories from various sources. To settle this, I typed 'Banlieue' into Google - the first thing that came up was the English Wikipedia page. Apparently Banlieue means 'outskirts' and describes a zone at the edge of a city that is under the city's jurisdiction.

The page acknowledges that in French and English the word is now a euphemism for a low-income housing project mainly inhabited by immigrants and their descendants, and it also acknowledges that petty crime has soared and is continuing to soar in these neighbourhoods and their surrounding areas.

Will Mse Bouzrou be suing every native speaker of the French language, in that case?

As for the no-go zone for women quote, you can read a book by a lady called Samira Bellil, the French-born daughter of Algerian immigrants. In it, she goes into much detail about the living nightmare of life in the Banlieues. This includes regular incidents of gang-rape or what they call tournante, pass around.

She claims that women who don't wear headscarves, women who 'act like native French' and native French girls themselves are at most risk. You can read more of these horror stories here and here, including one girl being gang-raped by up to 80 men in Lille.

The second link begins "The phenomenon of gang rape in France has become banal. ... Many of the Muslim girls have donned head scarves - more for protection than out of religious conviction."

But of course, Mse Bouzrou knows best, right?

Next, the Voltaire issue. Google leads me first to an article in the Independent, Britain's most Left-wing mainstream newspaper, which confirms many similar stories as more than mere anecdote. I think the specific incident to which Wilders is referring actually happened in Belgium, however.

As for the intifada remark - a large section of the population trying to change society to suit them and refusing to submit to the ordinary rule of law - isn't that the very definition of an uprising?

When will this witch-hunt end? How far can one man be pushed simply for telling the truth, for standing up and saying 'enough is enough'?

Please remember that Mr Wilders still faces prosecution in the Netherlands. You can sign the petition against this move here and donate to his fighting fund here.

Europe can ill afford to lose the insights and courage of Geert Wilders.