Turkish Forum

Tag: Wilders

  • Queen Beatrix visits Turkey

    Queen Beatrix visits Turkey

    Queen Beatrix is in Turkey on a two-day visit as part of the celebrations to mark 400 years of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Turkey. Today, she will meet with students and scientists for lunch and this evening she is due to attend a dance performance followed by a reception for numerous participants in the cultural events organised to mark the anniversary.

    The Netherlands’ first diplomat to the Ottoman Empire, Cornelis Haga, was sent to Constantinople (now Istanbul) in March 1612. Since then, trade between the two countries has been strong. The Ottoman Empire defended the Dutch Protestant faith against persecution by the Spanish, giving rise to the Dutch saying “I’d rather be a Turk than a Roman Catholic.”

    A visit by Turkish President Abdullah Gül in April was marred by comments made by Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders who called the president a “Kurd-basher and Hamas-lover” and said he was not welcome. In turn, in an interview with Dutch daily De Telegraaf, President Gül called Mr Wilders an “Islamophobe”.

    via Queen Beatrix visits Turkey | The Muslim Times: A Blog to Foster Universal Brotherhood.

  • Immigration and Islam Raise Questions of Dutch Identity

    Immigration and Islam Raise Questions of Dutch Identity

    Amid Rise of Multiculturalism, Dutch Confront Their Questions of Identity

    By STEVEN ERLANGER

    AMSTERDAM — Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who admitted to mass killings last month, was obsessed with Islam and had high praise for the Netherlands, an important test case in the resurgence of the anti-immigrant right in northern Europe.

    14dutch articleLarge

    Herman Wouters for The New York Times

    Albert Cuyp Market, on a popular street in Amsterdam. In light of the mass killings in Norway, the Netherlands’ population of Muslim immigrants from Morocco and Turkey has stirred debate.

    The sometimes violent European backlash against Islam and its challenge to national values can be said to have started here, in a country born from Europe’s religious wars. After a decade of growing public anger, an aggressively anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim politician, Geert Wilders, leads the third-largest party, which keeps the government in power.

    In Slotervaart, a majority immigrant neighborhood in southwestern Amsterdam, Maria Kuhlman and her friends watched Muslim families stroll by on a Ramadan afternoon, some of the men in robes and beards, the women wearing headscarves. A large blond woman shouted, “Go Wilders!”

    Mr. Wilders’ Freedom Party, which combines racist language with calls for more social spending, won 15.5 percent of the vote in June 2010. He was recently acquitted of charges of hate speech for comparing the Koran to “Mein Kampf” and calling mosques “palaces of hatred.” Mr. Wilders has said that immigrant Muslims and their children should be deported if they break the law, or engage in behavior he has described as “problematic, ” or they are “lazy.” He also warns of the supposed Muslim plot to create “Eurabia.” He declined repeated interview requests.

    While many Dutch recoil at his language, he touches on real fears. “Sometimes I’m afraid of Islam,” Ms. Kuhlman said. “They’re taking over the neighborhood and they’re very strong. I don’t love Wilders. He’s a pig, but he says what many people think.”

    Now, after Norway, the Dutch are taking stock. The killings frightened everyone, said Kathleen Ferrier, a Christian Democrat legislator born in Surinam, who had objected to her party joining a Wilders-supported government. “Norway makes it clear how much Dutch society is living on the edge of its nerves,” she said. “Wilders says hateful things and no one objects. We have freedom of speech, but you also have to be responsible for the effect of your words.”

    Taboos about discussing ethnicity and race — founded in shame about delivering Dutch Jews to the Nazis — are long gone.

    via Immigration and Islam Raise Questions of Dutch Identity – NYTimes.com.

  • Dutch MP acquitted in ‘hate’ trial

    Dutch MP acquitted in ‘hate’ trial

    2011621132459223580 20Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders has been acquitted by a court in Amsterdam where he was on trial for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims.

    Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party, has described Islam as a “fascist ideology”, comparing the Quran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. He was acquitted on all five charges that were pressed against him.

    The judge on Thursday said that Wilders’ statements were “rude and condescending” but not a criminal offence according to Dutch law.

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

    Wilders has said he has a “problem with Islamic tradition, culture, [and] ideology; not with Muslim people”.

    The judge interpreted Wilders’ remarks as challenging Islam as an ideology, which is not a criminal offence in the Netherlands. “[…] although gross and degenerating, it did not give rise to hatred,” the judge said.

    Wilders supporters applauded and he smiled as he left the courtroom.

    Freedom of speech

    A collection of minority groups that view Wilders’ comments as having overstepped the boundaries of free speech first pressed charges in 2007; however, the Dutch public prosecution refused to pursue Wilders, saying it did not believe in a successful outcome to the case.

    In 2009 an Amsterdam appeals court overturned that decision and ordered an investigation into “Fitna”

    (“Discord” in Arabic) – a short film Wilders produced on alleged Islamic extremism.

    The case against Wilders started in January 2010, but then collapsed following claims that the judges were biased. It was re-started a month later.

    Wilders’ supporters labelled the case a left-wing conspiracy and a head-on attack on freedom of expression in the Netherlands.

    On the other side of the spectrum, anti-Wilders groups warned the plaintiffs of the consequences of giving the politician a platform, fearing it would only raise his profile further.

    Wilders formed his Freedom Party [PVV] – now the country’s third largest party – after defecting from the VVD [right-wing liberals] in 2004 and has seen his following grow ever since.

    Wilders’ anti-Islamic and anti-establishment ideas won the PVV 15 per cent of the vote at the 2010 election.

    Wilders, who remained silent throughout most of the proceedings, argued in his final statement on 6 May that: “The Netherlands is under threat of Islam. Truth and freedom are inextricably connected. We must speak the truth because otherwise we shall lose our freedom.”

    He reminded the court of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered in 2002 by a left-wing environmentalist for his political ideas, and Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making comments on Islam.

    “I am here because of what I have said,” Wilders stated, “I am here for having spoken. I have spoken, I speak and I shall continue to speak. Many have kept silent, but not Pim Fortuyn, not Theo van Gogh, and not me.”

    ?

    via Dutch MP acquitted in ‘hate’ trial – Europe – Al Jazeera English.