Churchill’s Children

The story comes from Family Security Matters.

Churchill’s Children
by PETER FARMER


In the early 1930s, as the storm clouds of fascism gathered on a distant horizon few could see, Winston S. Churchill warned a somnolent Europe of the enormous danger posed by Hitler and Nazism. Today, we know "The Last Lion" as perhaps the greatest statesman of the 20th century and the man who did more than any other to warn the world of the threat posed by a resurgent and hostile Germany.

Today, we have the benefit of hindsight and thereby know how prescient Churchill's warnings proved to be. In the 1930s, however, the perception was very different. Isolated in the back benches of Parliament, Churchill was seen as a has-been, a pathetic and lonely figure trying unsuccessfully to resurrect a failed political career by raising the alarm about a threat only he could see.

History has a funny way of turning the tables on people grown smug and complacent in their view of reality, and the changing fortunes of Mr. Churchill and his critics certainly prove the point. In the early 1930s, the smart money said that the aging parliamentarian was not just wrong but deluded - but by 1940, the smart money had been proven to be dumb and no one was laughing at the old warrior any longer.

The perseverance and courage of "The Last Lion" come to mind today, when seeing the example set by Lars Hedegaard, Kurt Westergaard and Geert Wilders.

Like Churchill some eighty years ago, they stand almost alone in warning the people of Europe of the growing danger in their midst, only this time the threat is not National Socialism, but something much older - what Churchill might have called "Mohammedanism," and what we know today as Islam.

As a young cavalry officer, Churchill fought with the forces of General Sir Herbert Kitchener at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan, where in 1898, a force of eight thousand well-armed and equipped British Army regulars defeated a vastly larger Mahdi force of Sudanese Muslims. Immediately after the battle, Churchill returned to Britain and began writing the manuscript for what became a two-volume work entitled ‘The River War," a history and memoir of the Sudan campaign. Of the Mahdis he encountered, he wrote:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.

Churchill proved to be remarkably prescient not only concerning Nazism, but concerning the resurgence of Islam and the threat it would pose against Europe and western civilization. Were he alive today, what would he say concerning the fate of his beloved Britain and the rest of Europe?

The formidable and pugnacious Mr. Churchill is no longer with us, but his successors are. Men like Geert Wilders, Lars Hedegaard and Kurt Westergaard carry on the defense of western civilization and its ancient traditions, much like the fierce "Last Lion" did before them. Metaphorically, we can call them "Churchill's children," even if they are not directly descended from the great man himself. Who are these brave men?

Hedegaard and Westergaard are Danish, while Wilders is Dutch. Hedegaard is a journalist, Westergaard a political cartoonist; Wilders is a member of the Dutch Parliament. Despite the diversity of their backgrounds, all three men share something in common: each has been marked for death by Islam, and all have survived threats or actual assassination attempts upon their lives. All now live under police protection. These three men also share the willingness to risk ridicule, censure, legal sanction and even physical harm or death - in speaking what they see as the truth about Islam to a civilization in denial.

In 2005, the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten published several of Westergaard's cartoons, some of which caricatured the Muslim prophet Mohammed - thereby setting off a firestorm of indignation within the Islamic world and within politically-correct circles in the west as well. For the "crime" of exercising his freedom of expression, an imam issued a fatwa condemning Westergaard to death. In 2010, Westergaard survived a home invasion in which a Somali Muslim armed with an axe broke into his residence in Aarhus, intending to kill him. However, Danish security forces shot the attacker before he could complete his mission.

In February 2013, Lars Hedegaard, the head of the Danish Free Press Society, survived an assassination attempt at his Frederiksberg home, when a male of Middle Eastern appearance - disguised as a Danish postal carrier - fired a handgun at Hedegaard after he answered his door to take delivery of a parcel. After the first shot narrowly missed his head, Hedegaard and his assailant struggled, whereupon the gunman regained possession of the weapon and attempted twice to fire again. Fortunately for Hedegaard, the pistol jammed both times. The assailant and a collaborator fled on foot.

Why was the 70-year old journalist and former teacher targeted? Authorities believe the precipitating event was the launch of the new Danish-Swedish periodical Dispatch International, which was formed in part to cover stories that other Scandinavian media outlets were not running, including the effects of Islamic immigration and law on the indigenous people of Europe. In the past, Hedegaard has been a frequent critic of Islam and a staunch defender of free speech.

Almost alone among mainstream European political leaders, Geert Wilders has sounded the alarm about the relentless Islamicization of Europe, and the assault being waged upon freedom of expression by Muslim immigrants intent upon importing sharia law. In 2004, Wilder's friend and fellow Dutchman Theo Van Gogh was assassinated by Mohammed Bouyeri - allegedly for his role in the creation of the film Submission, which was/is critical of Islamic treatment of women. Rather than be intimidated into silence, Wilders intensified his efforts, culminating in the book "Marked for Death." Wilders, who continues to serve in the Dutch parliament, has survived several assassination attempts and now he and his family live under permanent police protection. He continues to travel, and speaks and writes widely on the subject of Islam and Europe.

Wilders, Westergaard and Hedegaard have been attacked and vilified in every way possible by their adversaries; they have been threatened and targeted physically, they have been sued, charged with hate crimes, libeled, slandered, subjected to propaganda and smear campaigns, and ridiculed at every turn - and not only by Muslims. Sometimes, those attacking them are their own countrymen and fellow Europeans. Through it all, they have remained resolute in their defense of the centuries-old traditions and freedoms of western civilization.

As determined as these men are, they cannot defend western civilization and its freedoms alone. The hour is late and time is short. Heedless of the defense mounted by "Churchill's children," Islamic advocates are currently working furiously at the United Nations to pass measures criminalizing speech and other forms of expression critical of Islam. Similar initiatives are underway in multiple countries across the globe. All are being financed by petro-dollars from the Middle East, if not directly then via indirect means.

In Great Britain, some workplaces have outlawed the eating of pork and other foods offensive to Muslims. In Canada, so-called human rights tribunals can prosecute Canadians - in the country of their birth, no less - for the "crime" of speaking about Islam in an unflattering way. In Oslo, Norway, one-hundred percent of cleared (solved) cases of rape for a recent year were committed by Muslim men against Norwegian women. Nevertheless, the official denial by the European Union continues and Muslim immigrants still flow unabated into the west.

When will others come to the aid and defense of "Churchill's children" - Geert Wilders, Lars Hedegaard, Kurt Westergaard and a very few others - as they man the battlements in defense of our civilization? A right unexercised is a right lost. If the people of the western world decline to exercise their rights of self-preservation and expression as free men and women, one day in the not-so-distant future, they may find that they no longer possess them.



Copyright - Peter Farmer 2013