Dutch politician Geert Wilders is back in the news for daring to say what few in the West will admit: that Islam is not a religion of peace.

Wilders is about to release a ten-minute film that shows Islam to be “a source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror.”

As we noted earlier today, many in the West have so little regard for their own civilization that they habitually criticize their own societies while praising those that do the very opposite of what they recommend for their own.

As a natural consequence of that attitude, when the occasional brave or foolish Westerner dares to criticize another culture or society, Western self-loathers run for cover or go on the attack against the hated truth-teller.

Thus it is with criticism of Islam, as vividly evidenced in the reactions to Wilders. Wilders has dared to criticize Islam, resulting in horror among his Dutch countrymen and threats of war from Muslim leaders.

As the entertainment newspaper Variety reports,

Last year, Wilders sought to have the Koran banned in the Netherlands and compared it with Adolf Hilter’s “Mein Kampf.” He said that if Muslims wanted to stay in the country they should tear out half the Koran and throw it away. . . .

Last week, Syria’s Grand Mufti Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun said that if the Freedom Party leader tears up or burns a Koran in his film, “this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed. And he will be responsible. It is the responsibility of the Dutch people to stop Wilders.”

These threats are by no means idle: in November 2004 a radical Muslim murdered Dutch columnist and filmmaker Theo van Gogh for his criticisms of Islam. Wilders says that "the government’s anti-terrorism chief warned him last week that he might have to leave the country if the film is shown," according to the Variety report.

So much for the government protecting its citizens.

Wilders has said editing the film will take another two weeks, after which he wants Dutch broadcasters to run the program in one the slots assigned to his party by the end of the month.

Wilders has laid bare the demoralized double standard of the Dutch elites—and Western elites in general—particularly as regards the status of Christianity, as noted in the Variety story:

Writing Wednesday in De Volkskrant, Wilders complains that the “panic” over the film, which reached new heights over the weekend, would not have happened if he had criticized the Bible. He concludes that this demonstrates the Dutch government’s obsession with Islamic sensibilities. “In this way the Koran film has already proved its usefulness.”

Wilders’ most controversial point has surely been his implication that Islam is simply incompatible with life in the West. That this is anything but a truism is risible, given that it is precisely what Muslims themselves say.

What this all demonstrates most vividly is the grotesque demoralization of Western elites.