Dutch far-right politician forms international alliance to attempt to
ban immigration from Islamic countries
AP in The Hague
Friday July 16 2010
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/16/geert-wilders-netherlands-far-right
An anti-Muslim populist in the Netherlands is forming an international
alliance to spread his message across the west in an attempt to ban
immigration from Islamic countries, among other goals.
Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom party, told the Associated Press
that he would launch the movement late this year, initially in five
countries: the US, Canada, Britain, France and Germany.
"The message, 'stop Islam, defend freedom', is a message that's not
only important for the Netherlands but for the whole free Western
world," Wilders said at the Dutch parliament.
Among the group's aims will be outlawing immigration from Islamic
countries to the west and a ban on Islamic sharia law. Starting as a
grassroots movement, he hopes it eventually will produce its own
lawmakers or influence other legislators.
Ayhan Tonca, a prominent spokesman for Dutch Muslims, said he feared
Wilders message would fall on fertile ground in much of Europe, where
anti-Islam sentiment has been swelling for years.
"So long as things are going badly with the economy, a lot of people
always need a scapegoat," Tonca said. "At the moment, that is the
Muslims in western Europe."
Tonca called on "well-meaning people in Europe to oppose this."
Known for his bleached-blond mop of hair, Wilders is a shrewd
politician who has won awards in the Netherlands for his debating
skills and regularly stands up for gay and women's rights.
But he rose to local and then international prominence with his
firebrand anti-Islam rhetoric that has led to him being charged under
Dutch anti-hate speech laws and banned from visiting Britain until a
court there ordered that he be allowed into the country.
Wilders said he hopes to position the alliance between traditional
conservative parties and far-right wing groups, saying that in Britain
there is "an enormous gap" between the ruling Conservative party and
the far-right BNP: "The BNP is a party that, whatever you think of it,
it's not my party I think it's a racist party," he said.
Wilders, who calls Islam a "fascist" religion, has won increasing
support the Netherlands in recent years even while he has been
subjected to round-the-clock protection because of death threats.
His Freedom party won the biggest gains in a national election last
month, coming third with 24 seats in the 150-seat parliament, up from
the nine before the election.
However, mainstream parties will not form a coalition with Wilders,
leaving him on the margins of Dutch politics for the next
parliamentary term.
Wilders is due to stand trial in October on hate speech charges
stemming from his short internet film Fitna, which denounced the
Qur'an as a a fascist book that inspires terrorism. The film aroused
anti-Dutch protests around the Muslim world, and he was banned for
several months from entering Britain.
But he is unrepentant and said he now wants to take his message
outside the Netherlands.
"The fight for freedom and (against) Islamisation as I see it is a
worldwide phenomenon and problem to be solved," he said.
Wilders declined to name any of the other founders of the organisation
he is calling the Geert Wilders International Freedom Alliance. He
has been criticised for running his party as a one-man show.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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