York, 2009 , pp.99-102.
In the decade that followed the French equivalent of The Rushdie
Affair, one struggles to find anyone with a position sanctioned by the
institutions of our society who will go against The Grand Lie. One of
these is the Dutch MP Geert Wilders (see his book Marked for Death:
Islamʼs War Against the West, Washington, 2012, p.33). Another rare
exception was when The Times published an opinion piece by Melanie
Phillips (see “It’s pure myth that Islam is ‘a religion of peace’”, The
Times, June 29 2015,
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4482378.ece). . ) It
is hard to find any more mainstream examples than these. Many
newspapers compartmentalize Wilders and his party, wrongly describing
them as “far right” (see “Far-right party still leading in Dutch polls,
despite leader’s criminal guilt”, The Guardian, 10 Dec 2016,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/10/netherlands-geert-
wilders-politics-far-right; Geert Wilders, “Dutch Far-Right Leader, Is
Convicted of Inciting Discrimination”, New York Times, 9 Dec 2016,
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/world/europe/geert-wilders-
netherlands-trial.html). Ludicrously Melanie Phillips gets castigated as “a
jihadi”, when she has never been known to encourage terrorism nor to
engage in violence (see “The personal jihad of Melanie Phillips”, The
Guardian, 31 Oct 2009,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/oct/31/melanie-
phillips-islamism-spectator). Beyond these few individuals, the list of
establishment figures who will challenge The Grand Lie is virtually
empty.
In the aftermath of the second and most deadly attack on the offices
and staff of the Leftist French satiricial magazine Charlie Hebdo, Zineb El
Rhazoui, a member of staff who was not killed in the attack (she was in
another country) came out and said “we need to stop saying Islam is a
religion of peace”. “Charlie Hebdo survivor, discusses why the world
needs to ‘Destroy Islamic Fascism’”, New York Times, 18 Oct 2016,
http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/10/18/zineb-el-
rhazoui-charlie-hebdo-survivor-discusses-why-the-world-needs-to-
dana p.
(Dana P.)
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