Reflections on Iceland's Denial of Visas to Falun Gong Practitioners

Recently, the Danish Embassy and Consulate refused to issue visas to at least 10 people who were holding Chinese or Taiwanese passports. Sources said the reason was that Iceland, following the Chinese government's demands, decided that during Jiang's visit from June 12-18, people who had Chinese or Taiwanese passports would not be allowed to enter. One official from the Legal Department of Iceland said this action was to prevent protest activities. Although he (Jiang) knows that Falun Gong is peaceful, no Falun Gong practitioner will be allowed to enter. Not long ago, when Jiang visited Germany, German police forbade people who wore yellow or blue coloured clothing from coming near the Chinese procession at Jiang's request.
Freedom of beliefs and freedom of speech are human rights that form the essence of Western democracies. However, if democracies lose their essence, which is freedom, they will turn into totalitarian states from within.

Iceland is a democratic island nation. Its population is less than 300,000, and there are only 610 policemen in the whole country. There is no army in Iceland. These statistics prove that they are confident that their democratic system will enable the majority of the population to resolve their conflicts rationally with broadmindedness and tolerance. If they violate the fundamental principles of freedom to satisfy Jiang's irrational requests, they are damaging their own democracy.
Jiang is facing discontent from the people in China, and he has no way to back down gracefully because he insisted on persecuting Falun Gong. He will be condemned by history's judgment because of his vicious suppression of Falun Gong. No Western democratic country should cooperate with or encourage this evil regime's persecution of innocent people, and they definitely should not bow to a villainous dictator.

As cultivators, Falun Dafa practitioners should look inward when encountering conflicts, as our Teacher has taught us again and again. We should see if anything we did was not right and correct ourselves promptly. If in our hearts we think of others first and want to be benevolent towards sentient beings, we should be able to resolve all conflicts by compassionately clarifying the truth. The world's people are watching our conduct and state of mind, and they will take these as representing Falun Dafa and Dafa practitioners. If our conduct is righteous, they will realise the truth because of this. If we do not behave well enough, they will be deluded by the evil's deceptions. So we must strictly discipline ourselves, strictly control our xinxing (moral character, heart-nature), and watch our every word and deed. This is not just for our own individual cultivation.

Written on June 9, 2002.

Source:
http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/6/10/22960.html
Chinese version available at:
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/6/9/31462.html