‘A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles’, a Chinese saying goes. ‘Wilders is not responsible for what Breivik did but words count for something and politicians should be aware of it.’

This was my reaction when I was asked whether Geert Wilders was in any way responsible for the attack in Oslo in which 7 people were killed and the massacre on Utoya where 69 young social democrats lost their lives, slaughtered by a man whose writings show he was inspired by right wing anti-Islam ideology. We must ask how this could have happened so we can do our utmost to make sure it never happens again….

What does it do to people who increasingly are born in this country when it is drummed into them that their efforts to help build a society counts for nothing because their faith is a totalitarian ideology which is completely alien to Western society? And what about those who are starting to believe that this is true and that this ideology is bent on destroying our society? …

My call to moderate our tone is not meant to avoid debate but to engage in it openly and with mutual respect.

Dutch Labour party leader Job Cohen writes in Volkskrant.

Translation by Dutch News.