Category Archives: Netherlands

Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me? Wilders accuses Left of witch-hunt over Breivik links

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert_WildersAnti-Islam MP Geert Wilders has accused Dutch left-wing parties of playing “a dirty political game”. He says they are taking advantage of the recent terrorist attacks in Norway to conduct a “witch hunt” against him.

Several politicians and commentators have pointed out that Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian man who has admitted carrying out the attacks, mentions Mr Wilders in his some of his writings. They also note that both men use a similar rhetoric when calling for a war against Islam, which they present as a threat to Europe.

RNW, 1 August 2011

Update:  Wilders’ website has a (barely literate) translation of an interview from De Telegraaf, headlined “Wilders furious at ‘witch hunt’ after the Norwegian drama”.

In the interview he attacks Labour Party leader Job Cohen, who was one of the politicians to point out that Breivik employed the same anti-Muslim rhetoric as Wilders. And Wilders procedes defiantly to repeat that same inflammatory rhetoric:

“Islam is the biggest danger threatening our country and the free West. We have too much mass-immigration from Islamic countries and too many hate palaces – Cohen call them mosques, I believe – and immigrants are still overrepresented in the crime figures. Enough is enough.”

See also “Prime minister should comment on Wilders Norway links: D66 leader”, Dutch News, 2 August 2011

Over half of Dutch say Wilders’ anti-Islamic rhetoric is fine

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A majority of Dutch believe that Geert Wilders, the anti-immigration politician much admired by Norway’s mass murderer, does not need to tone down his inflammatory anti-Islamic comments, a poll on Friday showed.

The Norwegian gunman, Anders Behring Breivik, reproduced anti-Islamic comments that Wilders made to the Dutch parliament and expressed his admiration of the Dutch politician in his 1,500-page manifesto.

Polling firm Maurice de Hond said on Friday that 52 percent of those surveyed thought Wilders did not need to moderate his stance on the supposed “Islamisation of Europe” in the wake of the Norway killings, while 44 percent said Wilders should tone it down.

In the opinion poll published on Friday, 29 percent of those questioned said they supported the Freedom Party’s approach to Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands, more than those who agreed on the issue with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats combined.

Reuters, 29 July 2011

Blame multiculturalism, mass immigration and Islamisation for Norway terrorist attacks, says Sweden Democrat politician

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sweden Democrat Erik Hellsborn has written on his blog that the twin attacks in Norway are the fault of “mass immigration” and “Islamisation”, denying that he feels any shame for sharing the same views as the perpetrator.

“If there hadn’t been any Islamisation or mass immigration then there wouldn’t have been anything to trigger Behring Breivik to do what he did,” wrote Hellsborn, who represents the party in Varberg in western Sweden.

“The ultimate responsibility is with the perpetrator, but if you are to discuss the underlying reasons which motivated him then it was caused by multiculturalism,” Hellsborn explained to the local Hallands Nyheter daily.

Hellsborn furthermore writes that he feels no shame or guilt that he and Anders Behring Breivik share the same nationalist ideology. Those who should feel guilt are those he calls “cosmopolitans” and argues that “in a Norwegian Norway this tragedy would never have happened”.

The political agenda detailed in Anders Behring Breivik’s “manifesto” bears striking similarity to the ideology professed by the Sweden Democrats and when asked if the the party should shoulder some responsibility, Hellsborn replied:

“No, Breivik is a product of the multicultural society. If Europe had not become multicultural then the shootings would not have happened.”

The Local, 26 July 2011

Dutch debate Wilders’ responsibility for Norway terrorist attacks

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders extremistDiscussion has started in the Netherlands about the influence Geert Wilders had on the Norwegian bomber Anders Beyring Breivik, since he praises the Dutch anti-Islam politician 30 times in his manifesto. Whether it’s fear of polarisation or political correctness, Dutch political parties seem to be inclined to protect Wilders.

Democrat MP Boris van der Ham called it an “idiotic reflex” to link Wilders with the massacre, while Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer said it was unwise to point the finger at Wilders. “If a murderer quotes me tomorrow does that make me responsible too?” he asked.

Historian Dirk-Jan van Baar has an answer to that: “I would say Wilders is not legally guilty. But as a politician he must be perfectly aware that there is such a thing as political responsibility. And he would undoubtedly have pointed that out if the killer had been a Muslim.”

Freedom Party leader Wilders can hardly be said to have kept a low profile in recent years when it comes to, say, hate-preaching imams and their effect on Muslim terrorists. He has also had harsh words to say about the Norwegian Labour Party, which was the target of the attacks. In a speech he gave in Rome in March this year, Wilders accused left-wing multiculturalists of cheering at every new sharia court or mosque. He claimed Europe would fall if it was stupid enough to believe that all cultures were equally valid and there was no reason to fight for its own culture.

On 1 May – Labour Day – he sent a tweet directed at Dutch Labour Party leader Job Cohen: “Congratulations, Job, on the 65th anniversary of the Arab Party. You gave the Netherlands mass immigration and imported countless no-hopers and criminals.”

On Tuesday Geert Wilders announced that he was “repulsed” by Breivik and that the violent actions of a psychopath were “a slap in the face for the worldwide anti-Islam movement”. Job Cohen welcomed Wilders’ statement but also had a comment:

“Wilders has now distanced himself, but I think it’s good to realise that your words do have an effect – and that goes for all politicians including Wilders. They can influence people and play a role in all kinds of ways. There is no way Wilders can be held responsible for this in any sense, but he [Breivik] uses the same rhetoric as Wilders does.”

Wilders rejects all attempts to link his ideology and that of Breivik. He claims the left is trying to make political capital out of the tragedy. However, speaking in parliament, he has himself linked remarks by his political opponents with potential terrorist attacks.

Green Left MP Tofik Dibi has now requested a parliamentary debate with Prime Minister Mark Rutte about xenophobia in the Netherlands. He believes the Freedom Party is largely responsible for channelling resentments in the Netherlands and he wants to discuss the similarities between Breivik’s ideas and attitudes which are prevalent in the Netherlands, for instance in Freedom Party circles.

RNW, 27 July 2011

PVV suspends Wilders aide over ‘scum’ comment

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party has suspended a parliamentary aide for describing a number of women dressed in burqas as “scum” in a clip he posted on the internet.

Sam van Rooy taped the women in a shopping centre in Scheveningen, near The Hague, and posted the video on YouTube. The footage has since been removed.

“This clip goes much too far”, a PVV spokeswoman said. “It is regrettable that these women wear a burqa and we would like to see a ban on burqas, but these women are not scum. We deeply regret this incident.”

RNW, 16 July 2011

Islam in Europe links to another Dutch news report which quotes Van Rooy as writing on Facebook: “What nonsense that you can’t call people scum. People who reject western values for a racist, fascist and inhuman system like Sharia are simply scum, just like Nazis and other fascists.”

Van Rooy’s comments demonstrate the absurdity and dishonesty of Wilders’ formal public position that the PVV is against Islam but not Muslims. If the Qur’an is the Islamic equivalent of Mein Kampf, as Wilders claims, then in all consistency those who follow it must indeed be regarded as fascist scum.

Vet comments on Dutch ritual slaughter ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Yesterday’s vote in the Dutch parliament to ban the no-stun slaughter of livestock could halt production of kosher and halal meat in the Netherlands, and is likely to inspire similar campaigns in other European countries.

The argument seems straightforward: if we have scientifically proven standards for animal welfare that we believe in, we should stick to those standards. And indeed, it would be a simple argument if the people affected by the ban were a random mix of a wide variety of the population.

The problem with the outright ban is that the only people affected are religious minorities: in the Dutch case, one million Dutch Muslims and 40,000 Jews. This makes it easy to claim that anti-minority sentiments are the hidden reason for the legislation. When far right anti-Islamic parties like Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party strongly support the ban, it’s easy to believe that the motivation may not always be just to protect animal welfare.

Our society is becoming increasingly secular, with the mainstream regarding religious faith as unproven and therefore unsupportable: the atheistic viewpoint dominates. How far do we want this to continue? Do we want to live in a state where people are jailed for their religious beliefs?

Qualified vet Pete Wedderburn writes in the Daily Telegraph, 29 June 2011

Surprise, surprise – Wilders is acquitted of inciting hatred

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Geert Wilders extremistAn Amsterdam court Thursday acquitted Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders on charges of hate speech and discrimination for statements he made attacking Islam.

“You are being acquitted on all the charges that were put against you,” Judge Marcel van Oosten said, reiterating an argument last month by the prosecution that charges against Wilders should be dropped.

“The bench finds that your statements are acceptable within the context of the public debate,” the judge told Wilders, 47, who has been on trial in the Amsterdam regional court since last October.

The flamboyant MP faced five counts of hate speech and discrimination for his anti-Islamic remarks on websites, Internet forums and in Dutch newspapers between October 2006 and March 2008, and in his controversial 17-minute movie “Fitna”.

Continue reading →

Wilders trial verdict due tomorrow

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Wilders in court (3)The trial of Geert Wilders is nearly over. On Thursday, the three Amsterdam district court judges conducting the trial will announce their verdict. It is widely expected that Mr Wilders will be acquitted on all the charges facing him.

If that is the case, the 29-month legal struggle which saw one of the country’s most popular and influential politicians accused of hate-mongering will come to an end.

It started back in January 2009 when justices of the Amsterdam court ordered the public prosecutor to bring charges against Mr Wilders of inciting hatred and discrimination, based on a number of his anti-Islamic statements published in the national media, as well as Mr Wilders’ film, Fitna.

One moment during the dozens of courtroom sessions encapsulated what, for many, the trial was supposed to be about. Twenty-four-year-old law student Naoual Abaida, daughter of a Moroccan immigrant, stood in the courtroom not two metres from Geert Wilders. She was allowed to speak as one of the “injured parties”; one of the people who had initially petitioned the Justice Ministry to prosecute Geert Wilders.

Looking into his eyes she said his “insulting, polarising and provocative language has set the tone for a country becoming increasingly intolerant”.

Continue reading →

Multiculturalism must go, says Dutch home affairs minister

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UTRECHT-CDA-CONGRESDutch society and its values must take precedence and integration policy should go, home affairs minister Piet Hein Donner told parliament on Thursday evening during the presentation of his integration bill.

Donner spoke of a “change of direction” in which the government “will distance itself from the relativism contained in the model of a multicultural society”. Society changes, he said, but must not be “interchangeable with any other form of society”, according to press reports.

It is not the government’s job to integrate immigrants, he said. General policy on schooling, jobs and housing gives them ample opportunity for integration.

Donner wants an end to integration policy and a tougher approach to people who ignore Dutch values or disobey the law. He is planning to introduce a law making forced marriage illegal and he wants tougher measures for immigrants who lower their chance of employment by the way they dress.

If necessary, the government will introduce extra measures to allow the removal of residence permits from immigrants who fail their integration course.

Dutch News, 17 June 2011

See also RNW, 17 June 2011

Senior civil servant quits over Dutch government’s alliance with Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Annemieke NijhofA senior civil servant with the infrastructure and environment ministry has resigned because she no longer wishes to be associated with the anti-Islam PVV.

Annemieke Nijhof, director general in charge of water policy, told the NRC she has no trouble with doing her job, but is finding it increasingly difficult to deal with the tone of the integration debate in the Netherlands. “The PVV describes 1.6 million of my fellow countrymen as fundamentalists who are threatening the rule of law,” she told the paper.

Nijhof said Iraqi friends she has known for 15 years are complaining about the more unpleasant social climate in the Netherlands. “It is becoming taboo to warn about this… I worry things will go downhill even more, and am very worried about the next election,” she told the paper.

Last year, research by civil service magazine Binnenlands Bestuurshowed 60% of government officials had difficulty with the involvement of the PVV in government.

The party is not a formal cabinet member but has an alliance with the VVD and Christian Democrats on economic and immigration policy.

Dutch News, 3 June 2011