There’s been some controversy here in the UK in the past 24 hours. A Dutch MP, Geert Wilders, has been denied entry to the UK. He was invited by a Lord to introduce his film Fitna. He is a far-right politician who holds extremely anti-Muslim views. His film compares Islamists to Nazis. He was informed by letter several weeks ago that he would not be allowed in because his opinions would cause a threat to public security. He went ahead with his flight yesterday hoping the Border Agency would let him in. I believe the Government has created a mountain out of a molehill personally.
While I may not agree with what Geert Wilders says in his personal opinions or his film, he should be allowed the right to free speech. Having said that the fact that he is currently under indictment in his native Holland for inciting racial hatred should certainly be taken into consideration. Within that same vein the Home Office has also denied a Muslim cleric entry to the UK in the past year because of his extreme views on suicide bombers (he endorsed them). To an extent they are being consistent with their policies: barring a radical Muslim cleric and a radical anti-Muslim politician within the same year.
The problem with all of this, however, is that Wilders might have come into the country and introduced his film without so much as a peep from the press nor any protests outside the House of Lords where he was to be. Instead we now have an international incident which is bringing this fascist more press and giving him more time on the world stage for his radical views. I also think that because this man is a European politician he carries some credence and cannot simply be labelled a nutcase. This means that the UK looks very much like a fascist regime itself barring free speech from occurring.
Unfortunately, the Government was damned if it did and damned if it didn’t. By not allowing him in they appear consistent but also appear to be limiting free speech. The Muslim groups are happy but free speech groups are not. When the cleric was denied entry the opposite was probably true. If they had allowed Wilders in the Muslim groups would not have been happy. They would probably call the barring of the Muslim cleric hypocritical or a double-standard and try to assert that Wilders was allowed in because he was white European. There is no correct answer here. I commend the Government for having the backbone to stand up to such a man but, again, feel that had they not made such a fuss there would be no fuss to report and this man would not be getting more press than he deserves.