Hair Color a Sign of extremism? (OT)

[Guest guest]

If you haven't seen this, thought it might be

interesting........Lynn

NYT: No Free Speech Defenders for

Criticism of Radical Islam

Hair coloring as a sign of anti-Muslim extremism? " Geert

Wilders's bleached-blond hair goes to the root of his character. For more

than two decades, Mr. Wilders, the controversial anti-Islam member of the

Dutch Parliament, has dyed his hair a provocative -- some say extreme --

platinum blond. "

Posted by: Clay Waters

3/25/2008 12:51:48 PM

The same

disheartening passivity the Times showed by criticizing Dutch cartoons

which depicted the

 

Prophet

 

Muhammad in

unflattering guises appeared in reporter Gregory Crouch's " Saturday

Profile " from The Netherlands,

"

 

A Dutch

 

 

Antagonist of Islam Waits for

His Premiere. "

 

Saturday Profiles are

generally positive features, but not so this weekend, as Crouch insulted

Dutch Parliament member and anti-Islamic activist Geert Wilders'

hairstyle while all but calling him an extremist for his harsh criticism

of radical Islam. (The Times rarely calls even terrorist groups like

Hamas " extreme, " but Crouch's report twice suggested the

epithet applied to Wilders.)

Geert Wilders's bleached-blond hair goes to the root of his character.

 

For more than two decades, Mr. Wilders, the controversial anti-Islam

member of the Dutch Parliament, has dyed his hair a provocative --

some say extreme -- platinum blond.

The color makes him stand out in a crowd, not terribly practical for

someone facing periodic death threats from Muslim extremists.

But Mr. Wilders has built a career -- and a new political party -- on a

risky and defiant outlandishness that encompasses everything from his

hairstyle to his anti-Islamic rhetoric.

Days away from releasing a much-anticipated film critical of the Koran,

Mr. Wilders recalled in an interview the advice he received years ago

from political leaders about how to get ahead.

“First, you have to moderate your voice about Islam,” he remembered their

telling him. “Second, change your stupid hair.”

He has refused to do either.

“If people push me, I do exactly the opposite,” he said.

Mr. Wilders, 44, is in the news here these days for a 10-to-15-minute

film he says he has made depicting the Koran as the inspiration for

terrorist attacks and other violence. Having failed to persuade a single

Dutch television network to broadcast the film in its entirety, he said

he planned to release it on the Internet by the end of this

month.

Crouch doesn't mention anything about Islamic threats that may have

intimidated the television networks into silence. Without raising an

eyebrow, Crouch casually brought up the suppression of free speech, a

puzzling position for a journalist to take:

Some here see Mr. Wilders’s film -- titled “Fitna,” Arabic for civil

strife -- as a potential hate crime and have already filed police

complaints in various Dutch cities, concerned that his past statements

and the film will polarize religious groups and foster

discrimination.

His supporters say he protects traditional Dutch values. His critics,

and there are many, say he is an out-of-control, right-wing extremist

risking his country’s good name for his own political gain. Others

are even harsher; one former trade union leader called Mr. Wilders

“evil.”

“Of course I am not evil,” Mr. Wilders responded, looking a little

annoyed. “Do I look evil to you? Maybe I do, but I’m not.”

Mr. Wilders, who lives under constant police protection in an undisclosed

location, is undeterred by threats from the Taliban to escalate attacks

against Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan if the film is released.

Crouch blamed not radical Islam, but the admittedly over-the-top

Wilders, for possible violent reaction to a film which no one has even

seen yet.

Nor is he moved by Dutch expatriates abroad who, remembering the fallout

from the Danish cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad, worry that the

film may make their lives harder, or even dangerous.

Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch foreign minister, told a public television

reporter that he found it “irresponsible to broadcast this

film.”

“That’s because Dutch companies, Dutch soldiers and Dutch residents could

and will be in danger,” Mr. Verhagen said.

Such statements spur Mr. Wilders on, and in his opinion unintentionally

prove that Islam is a rigid, intolerant religion whose followers try to

muffle criticism, often violently. Framing himself as a defender of free

speech, Mr. Wilders said there would not be such a fuss about his film if

it were about the Bible.

….

Mr. Wilders, who is married and has no children, was raised Roman

Catholic, but is no longer religious. The youngest of four children, he

traveled and worked his way through the Middle East for two years after

his high school graduation. Since then, he said, he has visited Israel at

least 40 times and maintains close contacts there. But he has no real

connections from his time in the rest of the region, admitting he does

not have any Muslim friends.

His claims to the contrary, some Muslims believe that Mr. Wilders’s

animosity toward Islam extends to them.

Near the end Crouch returned to Wilders' hair color:

Since no one has actually seen Mr. Wilders’s film, some here have started

wondering if it is as fake as his hair color, a clever publicity

stunt devised to prove his point that Islam and freedom of speech cannot

coexist.

Well, it's kind of hard to see the film, given that all the television

stations have refuse to air it and

 

 

that

 

 

his American hosting service

has suspended the web site that was to host it.