A Fateful Decision for the UK

by Aaron Eitan Meyer  •  Feb 11, 2009 at 11:01 am

https://www.legal-project.org/blog/2009/02/a-fateful-decision-for-the-uk

In a frightening and cowardly turn, it was reported on Tuesday that the British government has declared Dutch member of Parliament Geert Wilders persona non grata, denying him entry into the United Kingdom on the ridiculous grounds that he is a "threat to public order and public harmony" because of his film Fitna, to which Wilders courageously responded, "Let them arrest me in Heathrow." But what kind of 'threat' could Wilders possibly present to the UK?

The answer is almost certainly linked to the upcoming British Foreign Office's Pakistani initiative. Set to begin next Monday, the public relations campaign will attempt to project Britain favorably for a Muslim audience. And among the four aims of the ad campaign, as reported by the Guardian, are to convince young Pakistani men "that British society is not "anti-Islam"" and "to stimulate and facilitate "constructive debate" on the compatibility of liberal and Muslim values."

In deciphering the underlying British motivation for the ad campaign, the headline from IndiaExpress.com's article on the Pakistani initiative puts it well, "Don't attack us please, UK ads to say on Pak TV" In short, elements in the UK are attempting to force it to pursue a course similar to how France naively thought to deal with international terrorism in the 1970s, when France "made a bargain ... that it would not arrest Arab terrorists using France as their base planning attacks on Israel and Jews so long as they did not engage in terrorism on French soil."

Particularly considering the abject failure of French terrorist appeasement, the UK needs to carefully consider when it really wishes toestablish a precedent for refusing entry "to an elected politician from another member state of the European Union" on the basis of hypocritical, sanctimonious, and counterfactual Home Office statements about how the government "will stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country."

With all due respect to the Home Office, extremism, hatred and violent messages are sadly already present in some segments of British society, and barring Wilders from entering the UK will only further pander to those same segments. It is only to be hoped that Lord Malcolm Pearson, who courageously invited and re-invited Wilders, will not again be forced to "bear the thought that the "mother of all parliaments" might be perceived as giving in to threats." For, while Wilders himself is by no means a threat to the UK, capitulating to Islamist whims most certainly represents an imminent danger.

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