Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

2. 

   The defence of a Christian view never seems to be settled by debate: exchange of facts, reference to historical events.…

3. 

   But …… Rwanda is a safe place: Parliament says so.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/8/contentsSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 S 2 Safety…

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   Religion can survive only on the most unquestionable assumptions. The statements made on Sundays on the BBC as if they…

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   Yes, if I’ve got anything remotely like a phobia, as an ex-fundy, its bibles, churches, tracts etc. I like to…

I’M no great fan of Wilders, above, head of the populist Party for Freedom (PVV) best known for his right-wing populism, anti-immigration and Euroscepticism. But in any democracy people should have the freedom to express their views with having to face death threats.

“Freedom of speech must prevail over violence and Islamic fatwas,” said Wilders, who heads the largest opposition party in the Dutch parliament, the Party for Freedom (PVV). He was speaking after announcing the winner of a “draw the Prophet Mohammed contest in 2019.

Most recently in a statement published by Religion News Service, Wilders told judges in a case involving two Muslims who threatened him with death of the impact of the threats on his life

Every day you get up and leave for work in armored cars, often with sirens on, and you are always aware somewhere in the back of your mind that this could be your last day. I’m 60 now, I haven’t been free since I was 40.

The trial centres on a Pakistani Muslim leader, Muhammad Ashraf Asif Jalali, and Saad Rizvi, who leads the radical Islamist Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or TLP, charged with for inciting or threatening a terrorist crime against Wilders.

Prosecutors are demanding a 14-year sentence for Jalali and six years for Rizvi, but as both men have gone missing in Pakistan, there’s little chance of them ever seeing the inside of a jail cell.

Neither of the men is believed to be in the country, and Pakistan has no extradition agreement with the Netherlands. Prosecutors said in a statement that requests they sent to Pakistani authorities seeking legal assistance to serve subpoenas on the two men were not executed.

Wilders’ has been forcing to live under around-the-clock police protection for nearly 20 years because of his outspoken criticism of Islam, which he decribed as “fascist.“

Last year, a former Pakistani cricketer, Khalid Latif, was sentenced to 12 years in prison over allegations that he had offered a reward for the death of Wilders. Latif also did not appear for trial.

In 2019, a Pakistani man was arrested in the Netherlands, convicted and sentenced to ten years for preparing a terrorist attack on Wilders, who is sometimes called the Dutch Donald Trump.

A prosecutor told judges that threats began on social media in 2018 after Wilders’ announcement that he was organising a competition for cartoons of the Mohammed. The planned contest sparked angry protests in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world. Physical depictions of the prophet are forbidden in Islam and deeply offensive to Muslims.

In Pakistan, Rizvi’s TLP denounced the Dutch case, saying that instead of trying the two clerics the court should be sentencing Wilders.

Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan puts this question to the Dutch court: Whether it was not Geert Wilders who should have been punished for insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. It is not freedom of expression. This is called Islamophobia, which is being done with a plan.

TLP gained prominence after campaigning on the single issue of defending the country’s blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

Wilders, who canceled the 2018 cartoon competition after angry reactions in Muslim nations, told the three-judge panel he has paid a high price for his actions, which he cast as defending freedom of expression.

Wilders’ comments in the past have also fallen foul of Dutch law. An appeals court in 2020 upheld his conviction for insulting Moroccans in an election speech in 2014. He was not given a punishment, with a judge saying that Wilders had already “paid a high price for expressing his opinion,” a reference to the tight security the lawmaker lives under.

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