Dutch Foreign Minister Quizzed Over Matters Raised By ICLA Victims of Sharia Project

By • on May 1, 2014
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hague

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hague

The Dutch Foreign Minister has been questioned about matters raised by the article that appeared on this site on 29 April.  The article Paul Weston – Victim of Sharia: Arrested For Quoting Winston Churchill inspired questions from Geert Wilders and Raymond de Roon of the Party for Freedom (PVV).  It related to the treatment of British politician Paul Weston who was arrested for quoting Winston Churchill in the increasingly free speech averse United Kingdom.

We welcome such interest in our Victims of Sharia Action Network, a project that we established to monitor such human rights abuses.  We encourage other political parties across Europe and the wider world to raise these issues that are of profound concern to those who value freedom, including in the increasingly repressive Western world.

A translation of the reference to our article appears on the Gates of Vienna website:

 

PVV questions Dutch Foreign Minister about arrest of British politician

 

Today, Dutch parliamentarians Geert Wilders and Raymond de Roon (both PVV) asked the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frans Timmermans, a number of questions about the arrest of British politician Paul Weston. You can read the questions below:

 

Parliamentary questions of MPs Raymond de Roon and Geert Wilders (both PVV) to the Minister of Foreign Affairs about the arrest of a British politician for quoting Winston Churchill:

 

Are you familiar with the articles “Paul Weston — Victim of Sharia: Arrested For Quoting Winston Churchill” and “Arrested for quoting Winston Churchill: European election candidate accused of religious and racial harassment after he repeats wartime prime minister’s words on Islam during campaign speech”?

 

Do you share our opinion that the arrest of the politician Paul Weston is a gross violation of freedom of expression and an example of dhimmi behavior? If not, why not?

 

Do you agree that this event is not unique, but is exemplary for the state of siege surrounding freedom of expression through the rise of Islamic censorship in the West? If not, why not?

 

Is it true that Paul Weston risks a two-year prison sentence due to simply quoting a passage from Winston Churchill’s book “The River War” about the militant character of Islam and the social decline that results from it?

 

Are you willing to contact the British Minister of Justice and insist that no charges be pressed against Paul Weston? If so, will you keep Parliament informed of the British reaction? If not, why not?

 

What are you going to do to ensure that freedom of expression, both domestically and internationally, will not be sacrificed to Islamic intolerance?

 

Are you prepared to draw international attention to the danger that anti-racism laws and criminals laws on defamation of religion and/or groups are abused to silence criticism of Islam?

 

How do you intend to wage the fight for the preservation of freedom of expression, in light of the planned rapprochement to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an organization which aims for an international ban of blasphemy and which attempts to restrict freedom of expression in the West under the pretext of the fight against “islamophobia”?