Roosevelt also wrote: “To make a statement that all religions are the same is as naïve as saying that all political parties are the same. Some religions and belief systems give a higher value to each human life and some religions and belief systems give a lower value. As generations of Americans past, our time has come to defend the beliefs and values that made this nation great, such as equality before the law….There are such ‘social values’ today in Europe, America and Australia only because during those thousand years the Christians of Europe possessed the warlike power to do what the Christians of Asia and Africa had failed to do—that is, to beat back the Moslem invader.”
In Britain, Winston Churchill had this to say about Islam: “Were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science….the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”
And, in the words of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan: “If history teaches us anything, it teaches that self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.”
After surveying other commentators on Islam who lived in an era before the tyranny of political correctness, Wilders concludes: “Defenders of Western civilization should not sugarcoat Islam.”
Marked for Death dedicates considerable space to discussing the “conspiracy of silence that surrounds” the question of Islam. He describes how “naïve politicians, journalists, and so-called intellectuals in the West who refuse to admit…how fundamentally incompatible it is with our Western values and ideals.”
Wilders also explains the growing use of euphemisms and self-censorship to avoid direct criticism of Islam. He shows how many European governments are censoring discussion of Islam and multiculturalism through the use of legal warfare known as “lawfare.” Wilders discusses at length the proliferation of hate-speech laws in Europe to “condemn and combat Islamophobia.”
Although some of the reality-avoiding appeasement of Islam is motivated by fear, Wilders blames the rapid Islamization of Europe mostly on “cultural relativism” which “dictates that all cultures are equally moral and valuable—although in practice, Western culture is often presented as inferior to all others, stained as it supposedly is by racism and imperialism.”
Cultural relativism, he writes, the ruling ethos of Europe’s political establishment, “is gradually destroying our traditions and cultural identity. The so-called multicultural society tells newcomers who settle in our cities and villages: you are free to violate our norms and values, since your culture is just as good, and perhaps even better, than ours.”
Wilders believes that part of the public apathy regarding spread of Islam in the West stems from the fact that many citizens in Europe and America have forgotten the “nature of totalitarianism.” He argues that the West made a big mistake by failing to have a “Nuremburg trial” after the fall of communism to “expose the evil committed by the system.”
Although defeated Nazi Germany was subject to de-Nazification, there was no de-Marxification after the fall of communism. Instead, many former communists simply renamed themselves “Social Democrats” and managed to retain or regain power. “And without the public accounting of a trial, people tend to forget how… communism was.”
Wilders asks: “How is all this relevant to Islam? Our failure to come clean with communism has prevented us from standing up to Islam, trapped as we are in the old communist habit of deceit and doublespeak that used to haunt Eastern Europe and that now haunts all of us.”
Wilders provides his readers with several concrete proposals and political solutions which he believes can turn the tide on the Islamization of the West.
He writes: “To preserve our freedom from the encroachments of Islam, we must do four things: defend freedom of speech, reject cultural relativism, counter Islamization and cherish our national identity.”
Says Wilders: “Freedom of speech is the most important of our liberties. So long as we are free to speak, we can tell people the truth and make them realize what’s at stake. The truth is our only weapon—we must use it. The West’s political, academic and media establishment are concealing the true scope of the Islamic threat. But the people sense they are not getting the whole story, and they are eager to know more. We must spread the message.”
The West, he says, should also “stop the political indoctrination of our children and begin proudly teaching them the real history of the West instead of multiculturalist lies designed to instill shame in our own heritage. We must also prepare the coming generation for the difficult times ahead.”
Wilders concludes: “We can still prevail. We begin the struggle by standing up for our values and telling the truth about Islam. Even when we are insulted, even when we are harassed and intimidated, even when we are marked for death just for stating an opinion—we must never be silenced.”