Three speeches were given at the April 14, 2007 Counter-Jihad Summit held in Copenhagen by representatives from US, UK, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. See also The UK and Scandinavia Counter-Jihad Summit, presented by Baron Bodissey from Gates of Vienna, and Denmark: Five minutes to Twelve by Anders Gravers.

What are we fighting against? What are we fighting for?

Speech by “Michael Jensen” SIAD (Denmark)

Good evening, it is very nice to be here.

I am a philosopher, a descendent of an old philosophical family. My family’s school of thought is a mix of protestant Christendom, Hellenic philosophy and Nordic mythology – started by the Danish philosopher Grundtvig.

It is a tradition in my family to stand up for Denmark if Denmark is in danger. As did my great great grandfather, my great grandmother. And now I suppose it is my turn.

Agenda:

1. What are we fighting against
2. What are we fighting for
3. How should we fight

What are we fighting against?

According to Daniel Pipes, the Muslim population can be illustrated a bit like a snake:

Leaders

10 – 15 % of the Muslim population are the young, prosperous and intelligent, educated at university. They are actually the most dangerous Islamists, because they think, plan ahead and are devising intelligent plans.

Followers

50 % of the Muslim population prefer Sharia Laws to Roman Law. (Surveys done in England) Here you find the foot soldiers, easy to provoke, and pretty stupid. This is actually the weak point of the Islamists, most of them do not think that much, and get easily provoked. When SIAD held its first rally in Gellerup, around 800 Jihad warriors appeared in a very short notice – firing Chrysanthemum bombs, throwing rocks and trying to get to the demonstrators of SIAD.

This was only one part of Denmark. All in all we think that there are around 30,000 jihad warriors in Denmark. And they can be rallied in a very short notice with modern telecommunication equipment.

Fortunately for us, they are willing to fight, and that will show the people and the media where they are, and how many. TV loves it, it gives a lot of very good pictures.

So to rattle the Islamists cage, show up and demonstrate for freedom, against the totalitarian Islamism.

The rest

Around 35% of the Muslim population do not really care about religion, and a few of them are truly democratic. In Denmark we even have democratic Muslim movements that we support a lot. They are however very few in numbers.

Muslim states

According to Pipes you can define 3 types of Muslim states:

1. Old fashioned, like Saudi Arabia. Basically a Kalifate state, with Sharia laws
2. Progressive states, trying to find a way to modernize within an Islamic frame. These are states like Egypt, Pakistan
3. Secular states, that have adopted Roman Law and Democracy in all aspects with no regard to Islam. States like Turkey

These are only rudimentary sketches, it is hard to get exact picture as to what we are fighting against. But this is what we know on the basis of the most recent research.

What are we fighting for?

Basically we are fighting for the core elements of western civilization:

- Democracy

- Roman Law

The founding principle of democracy is freedom of speech. Let me give it to you with the words of Socrates.

Imagine yourselves in a courtyard; 2500 years ago, Socrates is put to trial, because he is unwilling to shut his mouth. This is his defending speech:

“Anytos told you, that you would have to put me to death, now when you have charged me – otherwise it would have been better if you had not accused me, because, as he said, if Socrates is found not guilty, all your sons will come to study with him, and be ruined.

You might not listen to him, and then tell me:

“This time, Socrates, we will reject Anytos and set you free, on the condition that you will cease your “quest for truth” and stop the inquiries you have just spoken about; and If we catch you questing for truth again, you will die” – If you said so, my answer would be like this:

“Dear citizens, in spite of due respect and regard for you, I will obey the command of God not yours, and as long as I can breathe and am capable of that, I will not cease my quest for truth; and I will continue my admonishment, and my reprimand,

and when I meet one of you, I will talk to you in the way I am used to, something like: Listen, my dear friend, you are from Athens, the greatest city, famed for its riches and power, don’t you think it is a little degrading that for you to only think about money and respect and honour, and only think about the amount of riches you have, but do not care at all about justice and truth, and care for the excellence of your soul. – And if the person I speak to - tells me that he really does care, I will not go away, and let him be, no I will question him repeatedly, and if I have the feeling, that he does not posses the qualities that he says he has, I will shame him and I will tell him that he disregards the things really valuable and regards the things of no value.

This I will do to all I meet, both young and old, citizens and noncitizens, but preferably to citizens; because you are closest to me. And you must know, that in this I follow the command of God, and I think that my work in the service of God will bring happiness to our city.”

Now some people have said: We should show respect to the religion Islam. I say they should show respect to the basic principle of our freedom of speech. And I say, respect is not killing people, raping and pillaging – respect is to listen to what other people has to say in a democratic discussion. We might not agree, but that does not allow you to kill and threaten.

Freedom of speech is a principle we will not yield, ever!

So how does this comply with Christianity:

Gospel of Markus:

“So Jesus re-entered the Synagogue. There he found a man with a withered hand. And they (the Pharisees) were watching him, to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath – so that they could accuse him. And he told the man with the withered hand: “Arise! And enter the center! – and then he told them: “Is it allowed to do something good or do something evil on Sabbath? To save lives or to kill? But they were silent,. So he looked at them with anger, and saddened by the coldness of their hearts he told the man: “Extend your arm! He extended his arm and the hand was healed. Immediately hereafter, the Pharisees went out and together with the Herodians, and they planned to kill him.”

The essence of Christianity as well as democracy is the same: It is not about the rules; it is about finding the action you as a person think is the right to do – to follow your conscience.

Now this is not possible if someone wants to tell you what is right and wrong, be it Pharisees, communists, fascists, Nazis, or Islamists.

We have the right to think what we want to think, how we want to think it – this is a basic premise of our faith, and we will not give up. Never.

We will not cease our freedom

Freedom of speech is not just some idea; it is the basic principle of our faith

Law

Now Roman law is another part of our civilization. These are the words written down 800 years ago, when Denmark got its first Law system from Bologne:

Jyske Lov:

“If it wasn’t for law, the one who had the most, would be able to take the most. Therefore law should be made to serve all, so that lawful and peaceful people can enjoy peace, and the unlawful and evil can be scared for what is written in the law, and are therefore scared to do the evil, that they were thinking about.”

The discussions about Law in have recently concerned revenge and the “feeling of Law”. Well, I say this is absolutely ridiculous. Law is about giving justice, by rooting out evil and rewarding good.

The Freestate

Anders and I have been working on a new way to see democracy. Anders has kept nagging me, to come up with a new idea that we could all fight for. My own idea was to copy the Switzerland direct democracy, but it wasn’t really good enough.

This is what we concluded together: 1000 years ago in the beginning of the Icelandic state – the Vikings there founded what they called a Freestate. There were no kings, tyrants, presidents, or dictators to rule the Icelandic people, they ruled themselves. Every year they went to Altinget in the valley of TingValla, there they met at the Lawstone and made law. It represents the original democratic system of the Vikings – now we want that back. And with modern internet technology, it should be possible to make.

It would be the natural result of modern internet and mobile technology.

The specific details on the modern Freestate is all written down in a book, that will be published in Denmark soon. And hopefully, with the help of the bloggers, in the rest of the world.

How should we fight?

It has often been said, that democracy is not able to defend itself. We have seen that with the Nazi takeover in Germany, in the fall of the Roman republic, and other times. Well that is not true, democracy was developed in Athens, and actually worked there for several hundred years. The Athenians encountered the same problems as we do today with immigration, and so on. And they of course had a solution to the problem we could use today.

What they did, was to define Athenians as Citizens. Citizenship was an institution, and according to Aristotle, citizenship is defined by two factors in a democratic state:

1. The ability to participate in democracy
2. The ability to participate in law judgements

So we could reuse the ideas of the Athenians, and judge immigrants on the above.

If you look specifically at the Islamists ability to participate in Democracy and Roman Law, you come to the conclusion, that they are not able to participate in either.

- The Kalifat rules out democracy

- The Sharia rules out Roman Law

- And the Koran have so many demands for violence, that freedom of speech is impossible

There are details on the execution of citizenship, that raises different questions and problems – but all in all it will be possible to judge immigrants; keep the ones that are open-minded and respect our society, and reject the immigrants that wants to destroy it.

Conclusion

Basically the fight we are fighting is contest of will – it is us against the Islamists. And the ones with the strongest will, will prevail. We have the resources, the organisation, but we lack the will – if regain the incentive to fight for our own fine culture, the fight will be over in a very short time, without much bloodshed. If we do not fight, it will come to civil war.

Our success will be defined by two things: Courage and actions. The only one in this room that does not hide himself behind a funny name is Anders. And I think one of the secrets of SIAD’s success - is the courage of Anders to stand up in the open, and defy the Islamist, in his own name.

That works.

This is a very dangerous fight, some of us in this room will die – but that is a price we should be willing to pay, because it is better to loose your life, than to loose your freedom.

But if we have the will and the courage, we will win.

All of these things I have spoken about, and much more, are written down in a book; The Freestate, that I will pass on.