Wilders and Gaffney Speak on Islamization Threat at Western Conservative Summit in Denver
by Jerry Gordon, ICONOCLAST
Last weekend, the Hon. Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) in the Dutch parliament spoke at the Western Conservative Summit (WCS) in Denver. They were foremost among a galaxy of conservative stars who spoke at the WCS. More than 1000 attended the event, the third such forum sponsored by the Centennial Institute of Colorado Christian University (CCU) headed by former Colorado Senate President John Andrews. Wilders, author of Marked for Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me and Frank Gaffney, Jr., President of the Washington, DC –based Center for Security Policy addressed the Islamization threat here in America. At least one Colorado legislator suggested that perhaps it was time for the state to consider a ban on construction of Mosques. This has become a controversial issue, given recent rulings in a Tennessee court that may forestall the opening of the expanded project of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.
Watch this C-SPAN video of both Gaffney and Wilders addressing the WCS.
Not much on the event and the messages of both Wilders and Gaffney filtered through to the mainstream press, engaged as it is in self-censorship of criticism of Islamic doctrine. It was left to the limited circulation The Colorado Statesman and Iran’s Press TV to report this weekend on the forum and what transpired there.
Andrews of CCU set the stage for Wilders’ talk in his introductory remarks:
Saturday afternoon’s topic, Andrews said, would be “the existential threat to the United States of America posed by Islam.”
Pausing for a moment to let his words sink in, he continued. “I didn’t say ‘radical Islam,’ I didn’t say ‘extremism.’ After you hear from Frank Gaffney and our friend from across the Atlantic, Geert Wilders, you’ll know why I just say ‘the threat of Islam.’”
Wilders in his remarks at the Denver forum conveyed the central concerns in his book and speeches to audiences on both the continent and here in America:
For his part, Wilders emphasized what he described as a distinction between followers of Islam and the religion itself.
“I do not have a problem with Muslims,” Wilders said during his address. “There are many moderate Muslims. I always make a distinction between the people and the ideology. There are indeed many moderate Muslims. But believe me, there is no such thing as a moderate Islam — there is only one Islam, and that is a dangerous, totalitarian ideology that is intolerant, that is violent, that should not be tolerated by us but that should be contained.”
Wilders warned against opening the door to Sharia law — based on traditional Islamic principles — in Western courtrooms but added that it was already too late to keep Islam and its influences out of the country entirely.
“Your country is facing a stealth jihad, an Islamic attempt to introduce Sharia law bit by bit by bit,” he said.
In order to keep the United States from succumbing, Wilders said, politicians have to ignore what he promised would be derision from the liberal media and other quarters and firmly deliver strong medicine. First, he said, Americans have to stop putting up with “multiculturalism,” even as free-speech proponents cry foul. In addition, he said American courtrooms must bar Sharia law and “stop the immigration from Islamic countries.”
Most critically, he said, “We should forbid the construction of new mosques. There is enough Islam in the West already.”
Wilders’ comment on a ban on Mosque construction resonated with a Colorado lawmaker, Senator Kevin Grantham that was picked up in the Press TV account:
A Colorado state Senator is raising some eyebrows for praising a Dutch lawmaker’s anti-Islam crusade, saying in an interview that the lawmaker’s proposal to ban the construction of new mosques was worth considering in the United States.
According to the Colorado Statesman, Senator Kevin Grantham attended the Western Conservative Summit in Denver this past week, where Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders delivered a speech calling Islam a “dangerous, totalitarian ideology” and saying that to stop the threat of creeping Sharia law, American legislators should ban the construction of new mosques.
In an interview with the paper after the speech, Grantham said Wilders’ fear of an Islam was “warranted”, and that his anti-mosque plan was worth hearing out.
Regarding Wilders’ suggestion that Western governments ban construction of new mosques, Grantham said it was worth considering.
“You know, we’d have to hear more on that, because, as he said, mosques are not churches like we would think of churches”, Grantham said. “They think of mosques more as a foothold into a society, as a foothold into a community, more in the cultural and in the nationalistic sense. Our churches – we don’t feel that way, they’re places of worship, and mosques are simply not that, and we need to take that into account when approving construction of those”.
Gaffney of the CSP focused in his WCS remarks on the evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood influence campaign in America. The Colorado Statesman noted:
Former Reagan administration official Frank Gaffney — something of a pariah in right-wing circles since he began accusing anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist of helping radical Muslims infiltrate the conservative movement — riled up the crowd immediately before Wilders spoke with a preview of a 10-hour video series called “The Muslim Brotherhood in America.” The series charges that a cabal of Muslims is staging a stealthy conquest of the United States by pretending to be moderate while ascending the rungs of power.
Gaffney called on conservatives at the summit to boycott the American Conservative Union’s regional Conservative Political Action Conference — known as CPAC — set to take place in Denver on Oct. 4, the day after the first presidential debate at the University of Denver, unless the organization renounces its association with individuals Gaffney claims have ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Wilders received a standing ovation from many at the WCS forum. Local radio Denver radio personality attorney Craig Silverman who introduced Wilders noted ruefully that he had voted for President Obama in 2008:
“I thought Barack Hussein Obama was ideally situated to speak simple truths to the Islamic world,” Silverman said, adding that instead, the president “wouldn’t do it, he did not do it, and he will not do it.”
Saying he feared for America’s safety and for the very survival of Israel, Silverman declared that he has read few books in recent years that affected him as profoundly as Wilders’ memoir.
“Geert Wilders is a great man,” Silverman said. “He refuses to be intimidated. He is a profile in courage.”
@ C.R.:
Islam is anything but Godless and Obama is not the cause of Islam making inroads in the American socio/political arena. The incursion started in the fifties of the past century and is only gaining momentum under Obama because of his exacerbated sensibilities when it comes to deal with the Muslim nation. Bush was not much different than Obama, he had the audacity to say, one short week after 9/11, that “we are not fighting Islam”. So what was he thinking when he went to war in Af-raq? Oh, yes, I remembered, he was exporting Western democracy to the region. BTW, I heard Romney saying exactly the same thing during one of the GOP debates last year. So the threat is here to stay, if you ask me.
@ bahmi:
Not just his mind–but his evil heart!
Godless Islam is a threat to liberty and security–to Israel, the USA and the rest of the world; tyranny and oppression are the result wherever Islam is allowed to spread!
People must never forget the gigantic evil housed in Soetoro’s brain case.
There are those who claim Elie Wiesel is a total impostor. If this is so, perish the thought, what would that do to our ethnic continuity? Do we confront truth in our mirrors each morning, or a continuation of mythology? Our survival is the most important thing for us, to what end will we underwrite that reality ? Each nation twists truth into fiction and vice versa. We must always distinguish our truth from the truth of others and the truth of this world. If we have a clean conscience, so does everybody else.
“I do not have a problem with Muslims,” Wilders said during his address. “There are many moderate Muslims. I always make a distinction between the people and the ideology. There are indeed many moderate Muslims. But believe me, there is no such thing as a moderate Islam — there is only one Islam
I Agree with Laura. I do not want Islam in the West and it is brought here by muslims.
Both should be banned.
Wilders is playing politics and succombing to the BBC so they will allow him in the country.
@ Laura:
I wish those who feel that we don’t do enough in the war on terrorism be somehow put into the place of friends and family member of the many that have died or or were injuried
fighting that war. That surely would shut them up.
BNO News
Taliban insurgents kill 7 American soldiers in Afghanistan
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By BNO News
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (BNO NEWS) — Suspected Taliban insurgents attacked coalition service members in Afghanistan on Sunday, killing seven American soldiers in two separate incidents, officials said on Monday morning. It was one of the deadliest days for foreign troops so far this year.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed one of its service members was killed as a result of an insurgent attack in Afghanistan’s south, but provided no other details. A U.S. military official in Washington said the casualty was an American service member.
Hours later, in a separate incident, six Americans were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) struck an armored vehicle in Wardak province, located in Afghanistan’s east. The U.S. official confirmed the casualties were American soldiers but declined to provide other details, pending notification of next of kin.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Also on Sunday, the U.S. Department of Defense released the name of a U.S. soldier who died as a result of a non-battle related injury in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province on Friday. The department identified the casualty as 46-year-old Captain Bruce A. MacFarlane, of Oviedo, Florida. He was assigned to the 1186th Transportation Company, 831st Transportation Battalion in Jacksonville, Florida.
The latest attacks came as international leaders have agreed to pledge $16 billion for Afghanistan’s economic development in the coming four years. The Tokyo Framework of Mutual Accountability was agreed to in the Japanese capital of Tokyo among representatives of more than 70 foreign governments.
@ BlandOatmeal:
Bland, while native born Americans are not about to convert to islam, islam does have a chance of taking hold in America through immigration.
@ Andrew:
I disagree, Andrew. Islam hasn’t got a ghost of a chance of taking hold in America, except among Black prison inmates. Obama, on the other hand, has been destroying the American economy at home while destroying our diplomatic clout overseas: He is, heart and soul, pursuing America’s ruin; and during a second four years he can do more damage to us than the Muslims have done in all our history. The people who voted for him, of course, are far more dangerous than the man himself; for, given the opportunity, they will give us Obama II and Obama III, if the republic lasts that long.
Please Ted release my comment.
Exactly. I have said as much whenever nitwits claim that American soldiers are shedding blood for Israel. We have never ever fought a war for Israel, but we have fought multiple wars for muslims, including bombing the Christian Serbs. Also our soldiers were rewarded for their humanitarian efforts in Somalia by being torn limb from limb through the streets of Mogadishu. The walt and mearsheimer crowd doesn’t speak of these things but insists that America’s problems lie with its relationship with Israel and its American supporters, even as the muslim-arab lobby drags us into wars.
As much as I admire Geert Wilders and laud his courage, I must take issue with this specific point. There cannot be such a distinction. How can islam be a threat without muslims willingly carrying out its doctrines? It is without logic. Obviously muslims themselves are the problem. So even those who fully understand this issue feel they must qualify their comments.
That Frank Gaffney rather than Grover Norquist would be a pariah in right-wing circles reveals that certain sectors of the conservative movement are as equally problematic as the left when it comes to islam. Norquist and his ilk should have been purged from the GOP years ago. The GOP may be just as compromised as the dems when it comes to dealings with the mb.
The US has been fighting and dying for Islam for at least 25-30 years and no one is raising much of an uproar. The US government uses the big-lie technique to perfection, with one aspect being that the domestic population is largely (but not entirely) incubated and protected from federal policies. American citizens drool and worship sports stars and the Kardashians, while believing that our ‘government hating’ media will keep us posted on anything worth mentioning regarding US policy.
We’re not entirely shielded, of course, as the blowback from the support for jihad has been felt by Americans for the same 25-30 years, and all Jewish day schools and JCCs have had to ramp up tuition and fees as they hire security to protect from domestic idiots that erroneously think that Jews (and not Arabists) are the ones controlling and benefiting from US policy.
Islam in America will not be discussed in the MSM: power of the Soddie Lobby
In the first decade of the 21st century the Saudis have paid about $100 million to American firms to lobby the American government.
Major lobbying firms that work as lobbyists in the pay of the Saudi government include Hill & Knowlton, which has been employed to lobby for Saudi Arabia since 1982.Qorvis Communications, has worked for Saudi Arabia since the 9/11 attacks, receiving over $60.3 million over the course of a decade.Hogan Lovells U.S., L.L.P., formerly Hogan & Harston, worked for Saudi Arabia in 2009.The Loeffler Group, LLP, headed by former Congressman Tom Loeffler of Texas, was paid $10.5 million by the Saudi government during the first decade of the century, and gave Sandler Innocenzi, Inc. $8.9 million.Patton Boggs, LLP, earned over $3 million from Saudi Arabia for lobbying in the first decade of the century.
The Middle East Policy Council has received large payments from Saudi Arabia to lobby for the Kingdom, including $1 million in 2007.
A partial list of first that have been paid by Saudi Arabia to lobby the American government includes:
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP: $220,770
Boland & Madigan, Inc: $420,000
Burson-Marsteller: $3,619,286.85
Cambridge Associates, Ltd.: $8,505
Cassidy & Associates, Inc: $720,000
DNX Partners, LLC: $225,000
Dutton & Dutton, PC: $3,694,350
Fleishman-Hillard: $6,400,000
Gallagher Group, LLC: $612,337.37
Iler Interests, LP: $388,231.14
Loeffler Tuggey Pauerstein Rosenthal, LLP: $2,350,457.12
Loeffler, Jonas & Tuggey, LLP: $1,260,000
MPD Consultants, LLP: $1,447,267.13
Powell Tate, Inc: $900,732.77
Hello Bland. Obama just seems like a passing fad. Islam is more than a threat. It is a cancer. But I get what you mean. Millions of Americans voting for him is a seismic shift in American society.
Forget Islam. OBAMA is an existential threat to America. The even greater threat, is the tens of millions of Americans who will vote for him.