In the press

It's difficult to imagine a more engrossing, enervating and distracting news environment. From Massachusetts to Haiti, from Capitol Hill to the mountains of Afghanistan, colossal events rate colossal headlines. In such fraught times, how easy for Americans to ignore an equally collossal if largely overlooked and little understood event in tiny Holland where Geert Wilders, a member of Dutch parliament, will arrive at the courthouse in Amsterdam tomorrow morning to go on trial for his speech and liberty. But, as an online symposium presented by the International Free Press Society indicates, this trial in the heart of Europe is for our speech and liberty as well.

Did Islam critic Geert Wilders violate Dutch law by calling the Koran a "fascist book" and Islam a "backward culture?"This is the question an Amsterdam court will have to answer when the leader of the Freedom Party PVV goes on trial Wednesday.

He represents all Westerners who cherish their civilization.

By Daniel Pipes

Who is the most important European alive today? I nominate the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. I do so because he is best placed to deal with the Islamic challenge facing the continent. He has the potential to emerge as a world-historical figure.

That Islamic challenge consists of two components: on the one hand, an indigenous population’s withering Christian faith, inadequate birthrate, and cultural diffidence, and on the other an influx of devout, prolific, and culturally assertive Muslim immigrants. This fast-moving situation raises profound questions about Europe: Will it retain its historic civilization or become a majority-Muslim continent living under Islamic law (the Shari’a)?

Three weeks from today, Geert Wilders will go on trial in Amsterdam for defaming Islam.

From the point of view of the Counterjihad, this is the trial of the century. No matter which way the case is decided, the outcome will profoundly influence the struggle against Islamization over the entire continent of Europe, and even across the rest of the Western world.