Oskar Freysinger of the Swiss People’s Party and Filip Dewinter of Vlaams Belang outside the Flemish Parliament on October 9, 2010.
From what I can gather from assorted reports, Oskar Freysinger, the Swiss force of nature (Alpine avalanche?) behind the country’s successful, lawful and democratically determined and all-around-wonderful ban on minarets, was recently invited to Brussels to speak on the dangers of Islam. Due to alleged (and wholly plausible pressure) from Socialist Mayor Freddy Thielemans, two venues successively booked to host the event were cancelled out from under him. First, the Crowne Plaza Hotel and, next, the Diamond Centre Hotel both shut their doors to Freysinger — something for Brussels-bound travellers to remember when booking lodging. (Gates of Vienna catalogues these events here.)
Why did they shut Freysinger out? Fear of the Muslim reaction to any and all criticism of and opposition to sharia. Such fear has a name — dhimmitude — and it proves that Brussels, at least according to the dhimmi-powers that be, functions only under Islamic law.
In the name of free speech, Freysinger was determined to deliver his lecture anyway, and Filip Dewinter obliged by offering his Swiss comrade-in-anti-Islamization a forum in the Flemish Parliament. It is no exaggeration to call this an offer of asylum from sharia, from one freedom fighter to another.