Photo: Here you see Filip Dewinter pointing out to me the historic sights of Antwerp's picturesque central square, outside the City Council building where he leads the Vlaams Belang contingent.
Baron Bodissey of the Gates of Vienna has posted tonight about the evil and ongoing campaign of character assassination against Filip Dewinter and his Flemish secessionist, anti-Islamization party Vlaams Belang in Belgium. Having interviewed Dewinter on several separate occasions--a couple of times in Antwerp last summer, once in Washington last year--I only wish the US had candidates of his strength, purpose and calibre. I know of no American politician who understands the historic sweep of the jihad as Dewinter does, and who is so forthright, outspoken and active in his stand against it. As far as the completely spurious and thoroughly deranged charges against him of anti-Semitism and crypto-Nazism go, they are, well, spurious and thoroughly deranged. Last summer I asked him to explain his stand against Islamization. He replied:
"It’s a global struggle for our values, for our European way of life life, for our civilization. That’s why I think it is also a European struggle; that is, It’s not only about a mosque two blocks away—no! It’s about our survival as a European nation and as a civilization. And I recognize those values, that civilization, also over there in Israel. It’s the only country in occupied territory, the vanguard of Europe in occupied territory, that is sharing those same values. And that’s why it’s so important to support Israel."
I asked him to expland on the term "occupied territory." What he meant, he told me, was not at all the conventionally Leftist and loaded meaning--territory occupied by Israel since Israel's 1967 war of survival against her Arab jihadist neighbors. No, what he meant was territory occupied by Islam since the Muslim wars of conquest and expansion began more than 1,000 years ago. Such lands include Northern Africa, Asia Minor, and the Middle East--all of which used to be mainly Christian and other faiths, including, where Israel is concerned, of course, Jewish.
Pretty darn terrific, if you ask me.