Anti-Islamic outsider is top Dutch politician

Financial Times ^ | December 27 2007 01:48 | By Michael Steen in Amsterdam

[DeaconBenjamin]

Geert Wilders, who compares the Koran to Mein Kampf, has been named the Netherlands’ politician of the year in a poll run by public broadcaster NOS.

Mr Wilders’ pithy and shocking soundbites – he warned of a “tsunami of Islamisation” – have dominated headlines, while his parliamentary outbursts have brought an adversarial style of politics to the muted consensus to which the Dutch are attuned.

His latest project, a short film about the Koran that will be released next month, has stirred anger even before much is known about it. Mr Wilders, who has had round-the-clock protection for three years due to the death threats against him, says the film will illustrate how the Koran inspires people “to do the worst things”.

He has called for the Koran to be banned. “With this film I’m trying to show not only in words but also images exactly what I mean,” he says.

Mindful of the backlash provoked by the publication in Danish newspapers in 2005 of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, government ministers have expressed concern but said there is not much they can do. Some public figures outside parliament have called for a movement against Mr Wilders.

The murders in 2002 of Pim Fortuyn, a pioneer of Dutch anti-immigration and anti-Islam politics, and in 2005 of Theo van Gogh, the director of a film critical of Islam, have pushed immigration and the failure to integrate large Muslim communities to the top of the Dutch political agenda.

Mr Wilders’ proposed solutions are deeply radical: stop all Muslim immigration, ban the building of mosques and ask the 1m Muslims among the Dutch population of 16m to “go to their own countries” or give up their religion.

He remains a highly controversial outsider and – many Dutch Muslims and non-Muslims alike would rather not discuss him. But his Party for Freedom, the PVV, won nine of 150 seats in parliament in the last election and it regularly polls above that level.

Mr Wilders has spent a career in public service and sat as an MP for the mainstream Liberal party, the VVD, for five years before breaking away in 2004. He has always demonstrated a feel for the popular mood. He was among those who campaigned for the surprise Dutch No vote against the European constitution in 2005. “Wilders knows his way around the parliament and he’s good at the work,” says Luuk van Middelaar, the Dutch political philosopher who worked alongside him as a political adviser to the Liberal party.

That is perhaps one advantage Mr Wilders has over politicians such as Christoph Blocher, who was ejected from Switzerland’s government this month, or parties such as the far-right Vlaams Belang in Belgium, subject to a long-standing “cordon sanitaire” by the other ­parties.

The NOS poll naming him politician of the year combined votes from the public and those of the parliamentary press corps. Mr Wilders, who denies being racist, usually says the press is biased against him.

The film project prompted Doekle Terpstra, a former trades unionist, to call for the movement against Mr Wilders. “It is time to send a powerful signal to all the Muslims in our country,” Mr Terpstra wrote. “The sound of Wilders is not the sound of the Netherlands.”

[nina0113]

They can bury him next to Van Gogh and Fortuyn.

[VOA]

bump

[The_Media_never_lie]

who denies being racist, usually says the press is biased against him.

His country is in danger of being overrun, he resists and they call him a racist???

[Dagnabitt]

Banning Muslim immigration is hardly radical. Allowing to go on unchecked is radical, it means the end of Europe and the West.

Wilders is a national treasure for pointing this out. Little wonder the “please-kill-us-last” crowd among Dutch elites is agitating against him.

[hinckley buzzard]

“It is time to send a powerful signal to all the Muslims in our country,” Mr Terpstra wrote. “The sound of Wilders is not the sound of the Netherlands.”

It will be, soon enough. One more moslem atrocity ought to do it. Sounds like reason for hope in Holland.

[VOA]

“They can bury him next to Van Gogh and Fortuyn.”

Good background reading on a nice country that is allowing itself to
be torn to shreds.
(WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE and IMAGERY in the book listed below)

Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerence
by Ian Buruma
http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Amsterdam-Liberal-Europe-Tolerence/dp/0143112368/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198727772&sr=1-1

[WesternPacific]

“go to their own countries” or give up their religion.

Works for me.

[dennisw]

This guy has guts ...and police protection to fend off the Arabian hounds

[DeaconBenjamin]

They can bury him next to Van Gogh and Fortuyn.

He knows.

Mr Wilders, who has had round-the-clock protection for three years due to the death threats against him, says the film will illustrate how the Koran inspires people “to do the worst things”.

[Travis McGee]

Mad Mo was much smarter than Hitler.

His death cult, cloaked as a religion, had much greater lasting power.

Radical Islam is an insane murder cult; moderate Islam is its Trojan Horse in the West.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Menwhile in this country...the USA:

**********************************

There is a book (now available in paperback ):

***********************

Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left
(Hardcover)
by David Horowitz

********************************************************

And reviews:

****************************************

Editorial Reviews

Rich Lowry, Editor National Review

David Horowitz is synonymous with pyrotechnics. A historian and polemicist of the first order, he is paid the ultimate compliment --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Davis Hanson, Author, Ripples of Battle

An original look at those who want us to fail in the Middle East, both at home and abroad. The --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

***********************************************************

See all Editorial Reviews

Fascinating Analysis of Leftist Goals, August 13, 2006

Reviewer: N. Sincerity - See all my reviews

A former 1960s radical, Horowitz is well-acquainted with the Leftist mindset. In this book, he strives to explain the modern alliance between left wing progressivists and radical Islamofascists. He argues that this alliance is based on a common desire to destroy Western capitalism. Leftist sympathy with Islamofascist ideas makes no sense from an intellectual point of view, given that countries ruled by radical Islamists are among the most racist, sexist, theocratic states in the world today. However, Leftists have recognized that they can benefit politically from destructive terrorist attacks on the Western world. A West under attack can be made to turn on its leaders in fear and desperation (as they did in Spain after the Madrid train bombings). Only once people reject current government structures can the Left execute its anti-capitalist revolution and build a new reality that mirrors the Leftist view of utopia.

The complete and utter idealogical hypocrisy of the Islamofascist-Leftist alliance is distressing, but as Horowitz reminds us,

Leftists radicals truly believe the ends justify the means.

***************************************

[sheik yerbouty]

He may become Hollad’s next PM..

[The_Media_never_lie]

It is truly amazing how deluded these people can be.

I recall recently seeing a video of a British woman who went to an Islamic country giving a speach to a Berkeley California group, and how politely and kindly she was listened to while she said some amazingly studpid things, such as how the Mullah looked so immaculate and powerful and how he glided into the room without his feet touching the floor, etc. Obviously not a well balanced woman.

That the crowd would listen so politely and non-judgementally was incredible! What does this tell us about the crowd? Would the give a conservitive the same polite forum?

I like DH and would like to read this book when time permits.