Dutch Leader Condemns Islam After Controversy
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) – The leader of the Dutch nationalist right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) called Islam “disgusting, reprehensible, violent and hateful” Wednesday, just days before his group will lead the next government.
Geert Wilders, one of Europe’s most protected politicians, wrote in comments monitored by Worthy News that “Islam is a religion. And criticism of religion is allowed.”
He added on social media platform X: “After 20 years of security, safe houses, five fatwas, thousands of death threats, and visiting many Islamic countries, I can say that Islam is a disgusting, reprehensible, violent, and hateful religion.”
He noted that on Friday, he will visit a The Hague court “to be interrogated by video conference by an Italian judge in the trial of someone who threatened to kill me from Italy. I signed another stack of criminal complaints [about threats] last week. It never ends.”
His comments came after appointed PVV ministers faced a barrage of tough questions during parliamentary hearings from the opposition about their views on demographic changes in the Netherlands.
The fiercely anti-Islam but pro-Israel party expressed concern about rising antisemitism among people from Islamic nations and vehemently denied observing neo-Nazi ideologies.
Yet these attempted reassurances did not convince organizers of the annual ceremony to mark the end of slavery in the Netherlands: they withdrew the invitation extended to the chairman of the lower house of parliament due to his PVV affiliation.
Chairman Bosma had refused to apologize for his past comments about an alleged “slavery industry” aimed at discriminating against white men.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema said she did not agree with the campaigners to ban the chairman from the event.
“It is of great importance that the most important political organ in the country is represented,” she told the city council. “You should not make it political. This time around, it is this chairman; next time, it will be someone else.”
The event Keti Koti – which means “the chains are broken” in the Surinamese language Sranantongo – has been commemorated every year in the Dutch capital on July 1 since a national memorial to slavery there was unveiled in 2002.
Over the last year, the Dutch observed the 150th anniversary of ending slavery in the Netherlands. Slavery was finally abolished in the former colonies of Suriname and the Dutch Antilles on July 1, 1863.
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