Dutch Jewish Producer: “Geert Wilders Is A Bigot” March 24, 2008
I feel like a broken record but I had to chronicle this little piece of Jewish-Muslim unity, from the Monthly Review Foundation’s MR Zine.
Jewish TV producer Harry De Winter has blasted Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam film aspirations with a provocative advertisement on the front page of the Dutch de Volkskrant:
TV Producer Harry de Winter, President of the board of the foundation Een Ander Joods Geluid [Another Jewish Voice], today placed a remarkable advertisement on the front page of the newspaper Volkskrant. De Winter puts Geert Wilders’s criticism of Muslims in the same category as anti-Semitism…
What is your message?
[De Winter:] “We Jews know better than anyone else what this sort of discrimination can lead to. Wilders claims that the Muslims must be dealt with and that the Koran is a fascist book. That’s how the persecution of Jews once started, by generalization. Therefore, it is time for a sharper criticism from the Jewish community. If you say the same thing about the Jews or Israel, you are considered an anti-Semite and ostracized. It is good that this feeling of justice is so strong, but, for me, there is no difference between the yarmulke and the headscarf.”
“If Wilders had said the same thing about Jews (and the Old Testament) as he does about Muslims (and the Koran), he would have been ostracized a long time ago and accused of anti-Semitism.”
Anti-religious prejudice — whether Islamophobia or anti-Semitism — is never OK and baruch Hashem Mr. De Winter has come out publicly to say so. He says he hopes to “get support from the whole Jewish community” — he already has mine.
This is really great to hear…and I think it is particularly excellent that a Jew is saying this about Islam…inshallah this will shatter a few of the popular sterotypes that many Muslims have about Jews.
He is right though, people of the book should stand together against this kind of ignorance and promote understanding in the world. Three cheers for Mr De Winter
How many Jews live in Muslim countries Yitz?
How are the treated?
Way to avoid the real issue. Yasher-koach!
And therefore we should stand up FOR this movie, and FOR anti-Muslim prejudice and Islamophobia?
Yasher koach! Way to contribute to the problem of hatred!
Everyone knows Jews were/are persecuted and were/are killed in Arabic-speaking countries. I’m quite close with the founder of JIMENA, Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, an organization that fights for visibility for and recognition of the struggles and losses that non-European Jews faced/are facing.
That has nothing to do with this — a Jewish man standing up for the diminution of prejudice, whether it involves him or not, for the good of Jews…and everyone else.
Please remove the “nofollow” tag from your comments.
Harry de Winter is a nice guy, but he also set up “another jewish voice” which critically looks at Israel…by claiming Israel is an apartheid state and such.
Geert Wilders is an idiot, but, come on, you are taking him far too seriously…we Dutch don’t really. Plus, have you seen the film? He didn’t say anything constructive or showed anything new, so doubt it has any effect on anyone..let him use his freedom of speech and ignore him otherwise…it will blow over. (as did his motion to ‘forbid the Quran’ We discussed it, laughed and forgot about it. It had no impact.)
Thanks for the comments. It is nice to see that even in these sad times calls for tolerance are still out there.
Please do not take this article to mean that I agree with MR Zine or chas v’shalom that I’m assuming that Mr. De Winter is this righteous man, all of whose words must be taken as Mt. Sinai-level truth.
This is nowhere near the case.
However, every single voice that praises interfaith and intercultural and interracial and inter-human unity and tries to achieve that fact is a good thing in and of itself, even if the voice box that emits it may be connected to a body that needs to do tshuvah.
Anything else Mr. De Winter or the MR Zine may have ever published is irrelevant to the fact that Mr. De Winter “did good” by saying this and these voices of anti-prejudice thinking should be echoed, wherever they originate from.
At the end of the day…even if a Jew is right to stand up and defend marginalised Muslims…I wonder how many Muslims stand up for the Jews..Sorry…I am all for equality and have always thought Wilders is silly. But I just saw the reaction of the Arab European Liga and feel a little upset…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51GWKtgTVwA
Y-Love, why are you ashamed of posting more articles about Islamophobia than about Terrorism.
What you post is totally under your control.
You should be proud! Stand up and stick up for what you believe in!
There’s Jews for Jesus, Jews for Buddah, Jews for Obama…… don’t be a Jew for Nothing.
During my youth i encountered a great deal of racial hatred. Today i suppose you would call it Negrophobia! Not only was it evident on the street, it was visible on the tube! they didn’t have to say the words, just showing the pictures of Negros being beaten and mistreated in other inhumane ways sent the meaasge. Mr Wilders anger is understanable but Mr Winter is absolutley correct in that expressing it in that way only lowers you!
Rose thank you so much for posting that link — I’m going to be taking this to people, most definitely.
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