Geert Wilders event in British Parliament building will take place

This is a press release from Lord Pearson of the British House of Lords, sent out in pdf form:

UK Parliament to show controversial film Fitna
Parliament has ordered extra security for a House of Lords event with the controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders. The private screening of Wilders’s film Fitna was initially postponed to allow time for clarification on issues concerning freedom of speech. Despite threats of demonstration from a British Peer and Muslim community leaders, the meeting will go ahead Thursday 12th February.

Wilders’s film Fitna features verses from the Quran alongside images of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on 11 September 2001, Madrid in March 2004 and London in July 2005. The film equates Islam’s holy text with violence and ends with a call to Muslims to remove ‘hate-preaching’ verses from the Quran. It provoked protests in Muslim-majority countries including Indonesia and Pakistan.

The leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, Wilders has lived under 24 hour police protection since 2004. Following Fitna’s release online in March 2008 al-Qaeda issued a fatwa calling for Wilders’ murder.

Wilders currently faces prosecution in Holland for incitement to hatred and discrimination. The charges are based on his film Fitna and comments in the Dutch press last year in which he argued that as Mein Kampf has been banned in Holland, the Quran should similarly be banned in under Dutch incitement laws.

Wilders called the Dutch Court of Appeal’s decision to prosecute an attack on freedom of expression. “Participation in the public debate has become a dangerous activity. If you give your opinion, you risk being prosecuted,” he said.

The court ruled that prosecution does not conflict with Wilders’ right to freedom of speech.

“Statements which create hate and grief made by politicians, taken their special responsibility into consideration, are not permit ted according to European standards,” the court said in a statement.

The House of Lords event, originally scheduled for January, was not postponed in response to the threats made by the British Peer, Lord Ahmed. However, Lord Ahmed told the Pakistani press that the decision to stop the screening was “a victory for the Muslim community.”

Following the private screening there will be a press conference:

“The Quran and Freedom of Speech”
A screening of Fitna (2008—17 mins)
Q&A with Geert Wilders MP (Holland)
No. 1 Abbey Gardens
Thursday 12th February
6:00—7:00pm

Notes to editor: 1.) The House of Lords event is hosted by Lord Pearson, a UKIP Peer with a special interest in the European Union, Islamism and education. It will be chaired by Baroness Cox, a crossbench Peer and a human rights campaigner with a strong commitment to humanitarian aid and education; she is a founder of The International Islamic Christian Organisation for Reconciliation and Reconstruction.

[end of press release.]

I have a question. The press release says that the screening of Fitna and the press conference will take place at No. 1 Abbey Gardens. That doesn’t sound like a room in the British Parliament.

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

In reply to my question, a reliable person informs me:

“The screening is first inside the House of Lords, in some kind of committee room, as is the panel discussion. Then, another screening in the Abbey Gardens, a connected building, where the press release will be held.”

I’m glad to know this. But the problem is that the press release only mentions the Abbey Gardens screening and press conference, not the Parliament committee room screening.

Since the whole reason that this screening is a big deal is that it is to be inside the British Parliament, and since the reason the screening got stopped earlier was that it was to be inside the British Parliament, you would think that the press release would state that the rescheduled screening will be inside the British Parliament. But it doesn’t. So the press release undercuts its own significance, and leaves the reader scratching his head.

February 14

LA writes:

A commenter writes at New Englisn Review:

Lawrence Auster is concerned that as the showing will take place at 1 Abbey gardens it may not be correct to say that the film is being shown “In Parliament”.

Nos 1 and 2 Abbey Gardens are among the 15 or so buildings that make up what is called The Parliamentary Estate.

The modern two house Parliament outgrew the building known as the Houses of Parliament at the end of the 19th century.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 10, 2009 10:44 AM | Send