To fight the xenophobic populists, we need more free speech, not less

[pampango]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/12/fight-xenophobic-populists-need-free-speech

Geert Wilders should not be on trial for his words on Islam. But mainstream politicians must confront and not appease him

How can we best combat the anti-immigrant populists who are now making the political running in many European countries? Later this month, the verdict is due in the trial of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders for anti-Islamic statements he has made – such as that the Qur'an is a "fascist book" which should be banned. At the same time, the country's minority centre-right government depends for its survival on the "tolerance" of Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV), which won more than 15% of the vote in the last general election. Wilders' price included a commitment to a burqa ban.

In the Netherlands, as elsewhere in Europe, centre-right parties have been trying to win back voters who have turned to such anti-foreigner populists by adopting slightly toned-down versions of their rhetoric and policies.

This week, a Council of Europe working group of which I am a member suggests a different approach. Our report, entitled Living Together: Combining Diversity and Freedom in 21st century Europe, argues that European societies should be rigorous in demanding and enforcing equal liberty under a single law. There should be, so to speak, a muscular liberalism of the broad democratic centre.

But we should not demand that people of migrant origin abandon their faith, culture or multiple identities. Messages of intolerance and xenophobia, such as those purveyed by Wilders, should be combated in the court of public opinion, not the court of law. Our motto is "minimise compulsion, maximise persuasion". Mainstream politicians, intellectuals, journalists, businesspeople, sporting heroes, all should mobilise to persuade anxious European publics that, so long as people abide by the ground rules of a free society, they have as much right to be full and equal citizens as anyone else – whether they be Muslim, Christian, atheist or Zoroastrian. And that we Europeans can make this work.

[Meeker Morgan]

1. Bravo! n/t