Comment

ADL Condemns Remarks by Geert Wilders

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maryatexitzero5/01/2009 5:57:44 am PDT

Wilders does seem to genuinely believe that Islam is not a religion. We may or may not agree with that - Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc. may or may not believe that, but, based on the speeches I’ve read, Wilders does.

If we base our understanding of what Wilders is saying on the concept that Islam is an ideology, then it would make sense to compare Islam to other ideologies, like Communism, Fascism, Democracy and Monarchies. If we treat Islam as an ideology, then forbidding the Koran would be the equivalent of forbidding Mein Kampf, Das Kapital, the Wealth of Nations or Atlas Shruged.

To make this concept work, though, Wilders would have to convince a fair number of people to believe that Islam is not a religion. And even if we agreed with the idea that Islam is an ideology, if we agreed with the idea that sharia laws are ideologically based laws that violate human rights, banning books and condemning/deporting people based on their ‘commitment’ to an ideology whose laws consider apostasy punishable by death would still be violation of human rights.