Geert Wilders in Nashville

When I told a friend about seeing Geert Wilders speak in Nashville the night before, she said she'd seen him on the news and thought, "I would like to hear what he has to say."

She expressed his charisma perfectly.

Geert Wilders cuts a unique and striking figure, tall, tanned and lean, serious though with a youthful face which is accentuated by bleached-blond hair swept back as if he's Hermes sprinting through the world.

In the Netherlands Wilders is the leader of the Party of Freedom, the third leading party in Parliament, and is considered a favorite to be the Netherlands' next prime minister. He is a vocal opponent of Islamist influences on traditional Dutch culture and of acceptance of Sharia law.

Thursday night at Cornerstone Church in Nashville Geert Wilders walked onstage with purpose and wasted no time in his speech delivery, hammering point after point, pausing only in deference to the applause of the thousands who showed up to hear him.

The police carried at least one protester out of the auditorium in the midst of the speech. He hollered something I couldn't make out and bing bada boom he was gone. It did not slow Wilders down.

Wilders is on trial in the Netherlands for "hate speech" involving his politically incorrect messages about Islam, but I never heard a word that sounded hateful in his speech. Rather, he was blunt. The truth, as he suggested, is hard to swallow. He noted that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also being sued in Germany for praising the recent demise of Osama Bin Laden. Free speech, apparently, is a uniquely American if endangered concept.

Wilders noted that thank God, there are many moderate Muslims, but the problem is that there is no such thing as moderate Islam. Mohammed was a violent, perverted figure. What he could not achieve through persuasion he forced by the sword. Wilders urged the audience not to shrink from judging Islam not as a religion but as an inferior, dangerous ideology. He urged Americans not to stand idly by while Islamists use our tolerant natures to impose their intolerant ideology. He stressed the importance of defending Israel and he challenged Islamist countries such as Saudi Arabia to allow religious freedom as in the west. The full text of his speech is available on Wilders' web site.

The evening included the showing of a video detailing Islamist activity in Nashville and warmup speeches by Bill Warner, a local professional, and Sam Solomon, a former Muslim and scholar. All were effective presentations.

But it was Geert Wilders who really shined as Hermes bringing an explicit, urgent warning to America.