Wilders re-invited to speak at the House of Lords!

Wilders had been invited to screen Fitna before the House of Lords, but was then disinvited. In "The intimidation of the House of Lords," February 3, the incomparable Melanie Phillips explains why, and what happened next:

But various representatives of the British Muslim community protested; and Lord Ahmed issued a threat that he would personally mobilise 10,000 Muslims to prevent Wilders from entering the Upper House and would take the peer organising the event to court. In the face of such threats, the meeting was cancelled.

Lord Ahmed then boasted of his victory in the Pakistani media. The Associated Press of Pakistan reported him exulting in

a victory for the Muslim community.

It was of course a major defeat for Parliament’s sovereign right and duty to protect free speech, the right to issue an invitation to a democratically elected member of a European parliament, and the right of British citizens to live without intimidation. It was an appalling development.

Now, however, it is fighting back. Wilders has been re-invited to speak and screen his film in the Lords later this month. 

Parliament now has a second chance to show that jihadi thuggery will not be allowed to prevail within the cradle of democracy. But if it is really to demonstrate this, it should also surely take action against Lord Ahmed, who abused his position as a peer of the realm to threaten mass intimidation of the House in which he sits. If it fails to do so, it will be another notch on the ratchet of Britain’s slide into submission.