AMSTERDAM – Dutch Labour party PvdA chairman, Ruud Koole, says Islam critic and Labour council member Ehsan Jami is distancing himself from party ideology with his statements about Islam.
In an article published in daily newspaper, Volkskrant, Wednesday, Koole is quoted as saying that Labour representatives are “expected not to go against fundamental party principles in his public statements”.
On 27 September, 22-year old Jami and Freedom party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders co-wrote an article in the newspaper in which they stressed the need for strong criticism of Islam. “If we do not act now against the far-reaching Islamisation of the Netherlands,” the two wrote, “then the 1930s will be revived. The only difference is that back then the danger came from Adolf Hitler, while today it comes from Mohammed.”
Koole, in the Volksrant article Wednesday, refers to Jami’s remarks about the Islam as “degrading” and says they also contradict the principles of a democratic constitutional state “which guarantees freedom of religion”.
Jami is a Labour council member in Leidschendam-Voorburg and the chairman of the Committee for former Muslims. He has received little public support from his party following his criticism of Islam.