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The Seeds of Liberalism

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By Jesse Petrilla FrontPageMagazine.com

Thursday, January 29, 2009

I just returned to America from Europe where I lead an incredible delegation to meet with European leaders in an effort to see a glimpse into a possible future for America by viewing the end results of years of failed liberal policies on European nations. Let these experiences and facts serve as the warning to what will be the result if we blindly continue on a path of destruction sewn by politicians who believe socialism, appeasement, and other leftist policies will benefit America in any way.

The trip started in Paris, the beautiful vacation land of good food, fine wine, arts, and European culture, or so I thought. Our tour guide in this city was the brilliant scholar Nidra Poller, whose insights and knowledge on French society shed light on everything we saw. She explained the social climate, the attitude of the government, and the current tensions and growing antisemitism that exists in the city. On the first day of our trip, local news reported that another synagogue was firebombed, a 4th that week, and a man had just been stabbed for wearing a Star of David by the notorious “disenfranchised youths” as the media calls them. Two days prior, there was a “peace” rally which resulted in the burning of dozens of cars, again by those pesky “youths” who for some reason yell “Allah Akbar” while rioting. We did an in studio interview on French radio where I bluntly explained to them that their problems were brought on by their leftist politicians who feel the need to push socialist and other leftist policies which have enabled all this to occur. Unfortunately these policies of open borders, refugee resettlement, welfare, and others, are exactly the same policies that the liberals in congress and the state assembly are constantly pushing here in America.

Jihadis outside the Louvre carrying a banner in support of the Iraqi resistance. Photo by Jesse PetrillaWe met with an underground group of conservatives in Paris. It saddened me to see that the conservative movement was truly underground there, for fear of reprisals from employers or angry leftists. We met in a secure and private location with a half dozen or so various activists, in the hopes to encourage them to begin a grassroots movement, virtually non-existent in Europe.

It was truly inspiring to meet with a young man who is the founder of a group called French Friends of the Republican Party, who sees what is going on around him and is willing to make a stand. We also met with the few conservative city leaders around Paris including Philippe Karsenty, the Deputy Mayor of the suburb of Neuilly. Philippe told us of a lawsuit he has been engaged in regarding the propagation of misinformation on both French and mid-east media. The most troubling item we learned when speaking with local leaders and law enforcement is the existence of no-go zones around Paris and around other European cities.

They are Islamic neighborhoods where police absolutely refuse to enter, and where if you are not a Muslim and you are caught driving through it you will have bricks thrown at your car and may not make it out alive. One of the conservative activists we met up with by the name of David described a time when there was a new Chief of Police who decided he wanted to crack down on the no-go zones and send his police in, against the wishes of many other authorities. When the police entered one of the large 15 story commie-block style apartment buildings, someone pushed a refrigerator off the roof onto one of the squad cars. They don't go in there any more.

These Islamic ghettos were brought on and paid for by social welfare programs, and the immigrants were welcomed with open arms in the name of "Youths" burning an Israeli flag. diversity and multiculturalism. Yet unlike the immigrants of the past, assimilation has been lacking to say the least. An unnamed source gave us an example of the local police climate; although the police want to fight, they are greatly restricted. He explained that during a recent protest, someone began shooting at the police with a handgun, the officer in charge gave the order to his men not to return fire, and was given an award by the government for his restraint.

That is the climate of liberalism. Tom Trento, of the Florida Security Council, and I went to a Hamas and Hezbollah rally near the Musée du Louvre, home of the Mona Lisa, to film and report. The sheer numbers were astounding, at a conservative estimate there were 15,000 screaming jihadis waving Hezbollah and Hamas flags. The crowd grew and grew, and when they hit the opera plaza the police blocked them from continuing to the Israeli Consulate. The infuriated crowd began to torch Israeli and American flags, and as the tensions grew and we saw police begin to lock and load their tear gas, we knew it was time to leave. That evening we found out that a McDonalds was attacked that we had ate at only a half hour before the rally, and all the windows broken. However, from press reports you would never know any of this occurred.

Our Paris contact Nidra Poller told us a few days later that there was barely a peep in the French news about it, if anything at all. The only information we could find on the event was a flat out lie in an AP news wire saying that the crowds were estimated at 2,600. This manipulation of the facts, and the control of the mainstream media is incredible, but is exactly what the liberals are attempting to do, and have largely succeeded in bringing to the media in the United States.

The flag of the Hezbollah terrorist organization outside the Louvre. Photo by Jesse PetrillaWhile I had expected dope smoking hippies and bums everywhere in Amsterdam, there really was not even a 10th as many as one would find in San Francisco. Instead, as opposed to Paris which was a dreary town where everyone wears black, I found there were bright colors, lively people riding bicycles everywhere, and a growing climate of people who are fed up with what is going on around them. Aside from the conservative politicians we met with, when stopping people on the street to discuss the issues we found that a sizable and growing minority of people are beginning to realize that the leftist governmental policies that got them into this mess are killing them and their way of life.

When you set foot in that city it becomes painfully clear that the younger generation is not Dutch, but is a majority Islamic. The prostitutes in windows in the red light district, and marijuana shops throughout the city are evidence of the self indulging liberal climate that brought about such a situation. Oddly enough cigarettes are illegal to smoke in or near any building, and in the red light district one overhears Arabic more often than you would think. Speaking with the Dutch politicians and local residents, many expressed wishes to shut down the houses of prostitution, however organized crime has gained such a hold over it that no one wants to stand up against them.

It is quite tragic because on a trip to Kosovo, a place notorious as a human trafficking route, I learned from experts on the region that many of the European prostitutes are kidnapped from throughout the world, and brought to Europe through those routes to work in these bordellos. Many do not speak the language, are regularly beaten, and are fearful that if they left they would be out on the streets. It is human slavery existing today right in the heart of the West.

The liberal social climate for years has created so many problems like these, and has dug the society in so deep, that today they are at a loss as to how to deal with the mess.What I can explain in words about the European situation sounds terrible, but be assured that whatever you believe to be the current state of European affairs, it is 100 times as bad as you think. “100 times as bad”, those were the words told to us by Dutch MP Geert Wilders. This hero of a man was just one of the leaders we met with on our journey. Mr. Wilders was just brought up on charges the day after we met with him on grounds of inciting hate speech for his producing of the factual film called Fitna, which discussed the ideologies behind our Islamic extremist enemies.

This attack on free speech is all too common in this region. Yet there is an extreme double standard if one is talking about speech against Jews, Christians, or against conservative ideals.

For Europe, it seems perfectly acceptable to tolerate the intolerant.

During our Dutch Parliament visit we saw several school groups on a field trip taking a tour. When a group passed by, one of the MPs we were with told us that this was a typical Dutch school, where out of approximately forty children we could count the number of Dutch on one hand, and saw that 30% of the girls were wearing hijab Islamic head coverings, and the rest were obviously from an Islamic background as well. This is a product of the refugee resettlement programs and open borders, and now the Dutch have found themselves in a situation where more than half the youth of the metropolitan areas are from Islamic backgrounds, two Christian churches are closing each week, and the Saudis are building mosques at an unprecedented rate.

Already, Muslim politicians in Amsterdam such as Ahmed Marcouch have called for Muslim only districts to be officially recognized and assisted by the government. These districts already have formed according to some conservative politicians we met with. Dutch MP Martin Bosma told me that in some neighborhoods Sharia Law is already being enacted and there have even been cases of corporal punishment taking place. Local crimes are not brought up to the Dutch authorities, but are instead brought up to the local religious leaders for judgments, and punishments are being carried out, completely bypassing Dutch law. Police are so afraid to enter these neighborhoods, and they are considered no-go zones much like the ones found outside Paris. MP Sietse Fritsma, an immigration expert in the Party for Freedom, told us that the welfare in the state gives an estimated 250,000 Euros ($325,000) total per family over the course of their life in The Netherlands. This establishes a climate of ghettos where there is virtually no economic movement, and the recipients simply survive off the welfare and feel no obligation to contribute to the society that feeds them. He also told us that these communities have a horrific crime rate, and that several Muslim politicians are now calling for Sharia Law in these areas.

While in the Netherlands we met with Professor Hans Jansen, an expert and author on Islamic studies, particularly knowledgeable about the European situation. He explained how the Islamists are becoming very successful in bringing Sharia and unrest to parts of Europe, and are influencing the school systems and government at an amazing rate. Lars Hedegaard from Denmark met with us as well, a journalist and president of The Free Press Society. These two powerhouses gave us an understanding of just how dire the situation really is. Through acts of intimidation from rioting, threats,

Speaking with Dutch MPs Martin Bosma and Sietse Fritsmaand murders such as that of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, the Islamists are able to gain a profound influence on Dutch society, and now have the numbers to elect their own into Dutch government. We traveled in The Hague with our friend Gerard Batten, member of the European Union Parliament representing the UK, who flew down to meet with us for the briefings in the Dutch Parliament. He is in the EU party UKIP, the United Kingdom Independence Party, who sees the writing on the wall and believes the UK should pull out of the EU. Gerard clearly pointed out how the EU nations have nearly completely lost their sovereignty, the borders have dissolved, and the member nations have turned into states run by a growing liberal bureaucracy. Together we met with Dutch MPs from the Party For Freedom, the party founded and lead by Geert Wilders whom we would meet with the following day.

All these inspiring conservative leaders we met with are fighting back, and are taking a courageous stand against the liberal establishment that has such a strong grip over Europe.While I believe that the majority of liberal Democrats in our government truly think that they are doing what they believe to be best for our nation, many of them are so misguided and uninformed as to what the end results from such policies will be, that I fear if we continue down the same track we will reach the same catastrophic situation that Europe is in today, and America as we know it will be destroyed. The no-go zones, the economic struggles, the civil insurgencies, all this will come to our door step if we don't get our act together. So any time someone says I am too conservative, I will remind them of what has happened in Europe due to liberalism.

Prior to leaving The Hague, we went to The U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to witness some of the proceedings in the ongoing trials from the civil war in the Balkans. That served as a reminder of what can happen in Europe, or in America if we don't prevent it. Our final day in the Netherlands MP Wilders gave us a message to take back to America, “Stand up, stand up before it is too late.”

Jesse Petrilla is the founder of

The United American Committee.