Geert Wilders at AFA’s 11th Heroes of Conscience Dinner

When we invited Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders to be our keynote speaker at this year’s Heroes of Conscience Dinner, we knew that we’d need security for the event.  After all, a man who speaks the truth about the “Religion of Peace” can’t help but find himself on a number of Islamic death lists and as a result, has lived under 24/7 police protection for a number of years.

Even so, the extent of the security is something that I wasn’t prepared for.  Thirty-some security officers from various agencies, from Holland, Los Angeles and various federal bureaus were involved.  Our guests had to pass through metal detectors and be “wanded,” every corner, nook and cranny was monitored, and there’s even more that I ought not divulge.  The cost was tremendous, the logistics were complex and exceedingly time consuming, and the “inconvenience” was, well, annoying.  But as extreme as it seemed at the time, the necessity for it was clearly proven when, the very next night, an Islamic jihadi massacred over 20 people and injured over a hundred more at a Manchester, England concert, most of them young girls.  And the crushing, devastating, truly tragic thing is, it could have been prevented.

Geert Wilders is on death lists; what is easy to overlook is how, in too real a sense, we all are.  Islamic jihad aims to kill the infidel while bringing terror to communities and our civilization generally.  The Manchester concert is only the most recent attack on innocents – the list is a long one.  To pretend that this is anything but Islamic jihad, that it’s anything but terror in the name of Allah is to continue to put innocents like those girls at the concert in danger.  It’s exactly akin to our choosing to ignore the threat to Geert Wilders and not provide high security, and thus invite certain mayhem and violence at our event.  Which, of course, we didn’t.

When our politicians make that choice – to invite ever-more anti-Western jihadis into our communities and at the same time refuse, REFUSE! – to do the necessary vetting, intelligence-gathering, dot-connecting security measures and decide, instead, to ignore the reality of jihad and embrace the big lie of “COEXIST,” to decide that it is preferable to express compassion for those who slaughter us rather than to protect us, then we wind up with Manchester, Nice, San Bernardino, Miami, Cologne, Berlin, the Bataclan Theatre in Paris (an attack whose barbarism is unfathomable, and therefore concealed by the media) and on, and on… and sadly, on, to a city, town, train, stadium, theatre, market near you.

Geert Wilders, in his outstanding speech, was very clear about the threat and how to address it, outlining very clearly what steps must be taken to protect us from further slaughter and barbarism.  The problem has been lain out for some time, the solutions have been expressed and expressed and expressed.  We can only hope that at some point, after some other massacre, that those in power decide to take the required steps and prevent further loss of innocent lives.

When speaking out about how to protect lives puts oneself in danger, it seems pretty clear where the problem lies.

We applaud Mr. Wilders for his courage and his continued dedication to trying to prevent further slaughter, even at the risk of his own life.