Press Release
Is Insulting Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands Possible?
Yes, Of Course, it is Possible!
(Translated)

The Appeals Court in Amsterdam ruled that one of the supporters of the Party for Freedom (Dutch: Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) party, who earlier insulted Islam and Muslims, is not guilty. The Court considered that the insults were in context of the public discussions, and the day before yesterday it was also announced that the person in charge of distribution of shocking leaflets belongs to the PEGIDA racist group, the leaflets contain the image of a woman wearing high heels trampling down on the Qur’an, we seek refuge in Allah. Alongside her is the phrase "No to Islam, Yes to freedom", it was announced that this person will not be prosecuted by the judiciary because his action does not violate the law.

The action by the state of seizing any opportunity to insult Islam and the Muslim community is no longer a surprise to a lot of Muslims who were born in this country, but what is surprising is that when Muslims stand to counter the harm facing them and their Deen, and when Muslims openly declare that they hoped that no one offends them, they are soon accused of being people who do not accept criticism.

The fact that the state consistently insult Islam and Muslims is not just a personal feeling, but it is a clear reality and it is deliberate, especially when the Court and the Attorney General admit that there is an insult to others (i.e. Muslims) that may be harmed because of this abuse, this recognition is a clear signal that insulting Islam deliberately and intentionally has become officially accepted.

Anyone who possess even a bit of ethics will realize that insults and distortion of a belief of a minority is not an achievement, but a cowardly act free of any intellectual content, it is a degeneration of intellect, moreover it is an expression of dispositions that are immersed in defeatism, and that is why they do not find a way to justify the insults, except by claiming it is freedom of expression, or that it is in the context of a public discussions.

The Muslim community is fully aware that the purpose of insulting Islam's policy is not only to distort Islam and discredit its sanctities and holy places, but it is leading to the fall of Islam from the hearts of its believers and for good, and that in the end it will be subjected to the inevitable. Westerners today are hoping to make Islam a liberal Deen as they did in the past with Christianity, but the success of the Renaissance in Europe in Christianity’s containment did not begin by mocking Christianity and distorting it alone, but it was because people lost confidence in their religion, which has become a symbol of injustice and abuse of power, along with the emergence of a rapid alternative of the liberal democratic system, which resisted the injustice of the church and oppression in the use of power, and the presence of the followers who were convinced of their ideology.

What every rational person should know is that Islam cannot be compared with Christianity or any other religion, and that the success of the West in containing Christianity does not mean that it will succeed in containing Islam, and any attempt to distort Islam will undoubtedly be a failed attempt, not only this, but it will yield the opposite of what people expect, and new generations of Muslims, who were born and grew up in this country will turn to Islam more than ever before, despite the repressive atmosphere in this country.

The liberal democratic system, the alternative, has proved to be a failure a long time ago, when it abandoned its faith in its own values, and became a superior civilization in which the language of ridicule, insult, and belittling those who have different thoughts in the community, takes precedence over the consideration of co-existence with them.

Okay Pala
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir
in The Netherlands