In the press

This week's column compares the emptiness of the Ft Hood report to the substance of Geert Wilders:

"Do you believe in 'radical Islam'?" the famous Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders once asked me.

The occasion was a banquet last summer at the Reagan Library outside of Los Angeles where later that evening Wilders would receive a Hero of Conscience award from the American Freedom Alliance. I would have the honor of introducing him. "What did you say?" I could barely hear him over the speaker at the podium elaborating on the perils of, yes, "radical Islam."

Answers from Europe's most persecuted man on the eve of his "hate crimes" show trial.

“That might be true,” says Geert Wilders about the possibility that he has lost his freedom for the rest of his life, “and if so is a very sad conclusion. I wouldn’t wish my worst political enemy not to be free. But I have no regrets. I have to pay a high price for the fight for freedom, but it’s worth it because if I and others in the world don’t fight against the ideology of hate and submission, we will all lose our freedom.” His remarks came on the day before the man who may become the Netherlands’ next prime minister goes to trial for criticizing Islam.

Wilders has lately been spending his days and nights with his lawyer preparing for a courtroom battle in the homeland of Spinoza. Human Rights Service asked him if he would be willing to conduct an interview by email, and he replied in the affirmative. But he added that because of the time pressures he is under, “it would help if it’s not too long” and asked that we send “just a few questions.”

The trial of a Dutch anti-Islam politician charged with hate crimes has begun in Amsterdam on Wednesday. It is a landmark case testing the limits of free speech in the Netherlands.

Geert Wilders has been charged with incitement of hatred and discrimination against Muslims.

In his short film, Fitna, he compared the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf.