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  Mission Accomplished for Dutch Populist: How a Film Triggered a Global Panic

Mission Accomplished for Dutch Populist How a Film Triggered a Global Panic

By Henryk M. Broder

Part 2: Dutch Premier: "We Must Consider the Consequences of our Actions"

A few days later, the Dutch foreign minister asked the EU to support the Dutch position. He said that the Dutch believe in freedom of expression, but are against portraying all Muslims as extremists. At the same time, the "terror alarm" in the Netherlands was raised to its second-highest level. The government of Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende appealed to Wilders to abandon his plan to broadcast the film. On the one hand, Balkenende said, "constitutional freedoms must be defended, while extremism and terrorism must be fought." On the other hand, he continued, "we must consider the consequences of our actions and may not endanger the things that are valuable to us all."

Wilders reaction was clear. "The cabinet is falling onto its knees before Islam and capitulating," he said, characterizing Balkenende as "an anxious man who has chosen the side of the Taliban."

But Balkenende is only doing what he believes is the best thing to do under the circumstances. Meanwhile, both the secretary general of NATO and Iran's deputy foreign minister have offered the Dutch advice on how to neutralize Wilders: by invoking Article 29 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to Article 29, individual rights must be limited when it comes to respect for the freedoms of others and where the public order makes this necessary. Ironically, the man who invoked this article is the deputy foreign minister of a country, Iran, where homosexuals are publicly hanged and adulteresses are stoned to death, and when this happens, no one there invokes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Iranian ambassador to the Netherlands also told a group of journalists that freedom of speech is "not unlimited."

When asked whether the Netherlands could expect a boycott on Dutch products if the Wilders film is shown, the ambassador was evasive but clear. "All options are on the table," he said. "No one can say what will happen."

Hans Gert Pöttering, the president of the European Parliament, issued a similar statement. He called upon the media to impose a "code of behavior" on itself and not to publish anything that could be perceived as "derogatory" by members of religious groups. He also warned the Dutch not to "make a contribution to violence because of our freedom." These clear words of appeasement, which the chief EU parliamentarian directed against the victims and not the perpetrators of violence, urging the former to be on their best behavior, were -- as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote -- the result of "anticipated fear" and sounded "dangerously like self-censorship."

The only one who kept a clear head in this brewing climate of acute fear, preventive adjustment and growing violence was Wilders himself. He called upon Dutch television networks to broadcast his film in its entirety and without having seen it first, which they, of course, rejected. Then Nieuwspoort International Press Center in The Hague agreed to show the film in late March, in connection with a press conference, if Wilders would assume the costs of security for people and property. It was a generous offer, but tantamount to a rejection.

All this leaves Wilders is the Internet -- unless, of course, he decides not to show the film, which no one has seen and of which no one can say whether it even exists. The truth is that the "provocateur" has already achieved his goal. Wilders has managed to portray the Dutch and the Europeans as cowards, shouting "we capitulate!" before the battle has even begun.

As he sees it, they are loath to intervene in Iran's internal affairs but raise no objections when Iran intervenes in their internal affairs. They behave as if they want to protect the members of all religions against insults and abuse, all the while overlooking the fact that it is usually the members of one religion who respond aggressively whenever they are accused of having a propensity for violence.

Wilders could not have achieved more if his film had been shown.

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