Democrats Seek to Block Geert Wilders from Texas Muhammad Art and Cartoon Exhibit

Two Democrat U.S. Representatives are seeking to block Geert Wilders from entering the United States, where he is scheduled to speak at the First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest. The event will be held May 3^rd at the Curtis Caldwell Center, which is owned and operated by the Garland Independent School District, and hosted by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). The Curtis Caldwell Center was the site of a “Honor the Prophet” rally in January. About two thousand Texans came out to protest that event.

Geert Wilders, a member of The Netherlands Parliament, has led the fight for de-Islamization in his country, which has faced many of the same problems with assimilation as other European countries. These problems include large-scale communities where the government declares no-go zones for police and other emergency services.

“The Netherlands are facing the biggest threat since World War II.” Wilders said in his address to the Parliament earlier this year, “and the government policies are still being characterized by amateurism and an incredibly dangerous political correctness.”

Two Democrat U.S. Representatives are seeking to block Wilders from entering the United States, according to ForeignPolicy.com. Representatives Keith Ellison (D-MN) and André Carson (D-IN) wrote a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, asking them to block Wilders’ entry under the authority of the International Religious Freedom Act. The Act allow the State Department to ban the entry of foreign leaders “responsible for severe violations of religious freedom.”

“We respectfully request that the U.S. government deny Mr. Wilders entry due to his participation in inciting anti-Muslim aggression and violence,” the Representatives wrote in the April 23 letter. “Mr. Wilders’ policy agenda is centered on the principle that Christian culture is superior to other cultures.”

“It is revealing that these Muslim congressmen would show themselves to be enemies of free speech and free discourse,” said AFDI founder Pamela Geller in an email to Breitbart Texas. “They cannot refute Wilders, and don’t dare debate him. All these little authoritarians can do is try to prevent people from hearing his message. That is the sharia.”  The latter is a reference to the Islamic code of law.

“If the Western media ran the Danish cartoons back when this Islamic supremacist movement first started gaining steam, the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo would be alive today,” Geller said in response to an inquiry from Breitbart Texas, during a free-speech rally held outside the Muslim “Honor the Prophet” event in January.

“Enough is enough,” she explained. “They’re just cartoons. We’re holding this exhibit and cartoon contest to show how insane the world has become — with people in the free world tiptoeing in terror around supremacist thugs who actually commit murder over cartoons. If we can’t stand up for the freedom of speech, we will lose it — and with it, free society.”

The contest will take submissions online, with the winner to be announced at the event in Garland. The winning cartoonist will receive a $10,000 prize. The exhibit will feature images of Islam’s prophet in both historical and contemporary settings. There will also be a series of speeches by internationally renowned free-speech advocates.

Geller explained that the art exhibit is the next logical step following AFDI’s Free Speech Rally in Garland. “This event will stand for free speech and show that Americans will not be cowed by violent Islamic intimidation,” she stated. “That is a crucial stand to take as Islamic assaults on the freedom of speech, our most fundamental freedom, are growing more insistent.”

An author and activist with passionate fans and detractors, Geller has been sounding the alarm about Muslim encroachment into Europe and America, and its possible impact on American culture in the future. The Free Speech Rally Geller organized is one of many activities she has created to shine the light on radical Islam, as taught in mosques in the United States.

In June, 2010, Geller organized and led a group of approximately 5,000 protesters (according to her estimate) in a march on the site of the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque.” Eventually, plans for that mosque were cancelled.

Bob Price is a senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and on Facebook.