Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Dutch Freedom Party Leader Geert Wilders: Calls for Koran ban after leader of ex Muslim group is assaulted in name of Islam

Dutch Freedom Party Leader Geert Wilders: Calls for Koran ban after leader of ex Muslim group is assaulted in name of Islam

August 8, 2007

Dutch populist Wilders calls for ban on Koran

Wed Aug 8, 2007 10:53AM BST

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders has called for the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands, branding it a "fascist book" in the vein of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" which legitimises violence.

Writing in Dutch daily De Volkskrant on Wednesday Wilders said: "Ban this wretched book just like Mein Kampf is banned. Send a signal ... to Islamists that the Koran can never, ever be used in our country as an excuse or inspiration for violence."

Hitler's Mein Kampf, published in 1925, outlines the future Nazi dictator's racist ideology. It has been banned from sale in the Netherlands since the end of World War Two.

Ayhan Tonca, chairman of the CMO umbrella group of Dutch Muslim organisations said Wilders' comments were best ignored.

"This is typical Wilders. This is a ridiculous idea," he said "There is not much news at the moment so he is trying to create some."

Wilders, whose new party won nine seats out of the 150 in parliament in last November's elections, is well known for his firebrand remarks on Islam.

He has warned of a "tsunami of Islamisation" in a country home to 1 million Muslims, and has lived under heavy protection since receiving death threats from Islamist militants in 2004.

Wilders said an attack over the weekend by two Moroccans and a Somali on a young Iranian-born politician who heads a Dutch group for "ex-Muslims" had spurred him to write.

The attack on Ehsan Jami, 22, caused an outcry in the Netherlands, where the November 2004 murder of Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker critical of Islam, by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim militant led to an anti-Muslim backlash and exposed social tensions.

Issues of immigration and integration no longer top the political agenda, despite the efforts of Wilders and his allies.

"Allah sees the death penalty as fitting for those who no longer believe," Wilders wrote on Wednesday, adding this view had fuelled the attack on Jami, now under police protection.

The Muslim holy book should be banned from sale, from use in mosques and private households, Wilders added.

Earlier this year, Wilders called for a vote of no-confidence in two Muslim government ministers, questioning their loyalty to the country because of their dual nationality.

He has also campaigned to ban Muslim face veils, ban the building of new mosques and halt all Muslim immigration.

In April, Wilders was warned by the Dutch anti-terrorism chief that his anti-Islam statements had stoked anger in the Middle East, and that he was going too far.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL0819099220070808?pageNumber=2

MIM:Wilders has also caused from the implementation of a burka ban,

http://www.nisnews.nl/public/130707_1.htm

THE HAGUE, 13/07/07 - The Party for Freedom (PVV) wants wearing of face-covering garments for Islamic women to become a criminal offence. The rightwing party of Geert Wilders put forward a private members bill for a burqa ban in the Lower House yesterday.

Wearing a burqa or niqab in public places should according to the PVV be banned for the promotion of integration, emancipation and safety and the protection of the democratic constitutional state. Wilders and MP Fritsma want offenders to be punished with a maximum of 12 days in prison or a second-category fine, meaning a maximum of 3,350 euros.

On 10 October 2005, Wilders previously sought a burqa ban, and on 20 December 2005, the Lower House adopted this motion. "The previous cabinets however never implemented the motion. The present cabinet is not planning to carry it out either," said Wilders yesterday. He wants to force through the implementation of the motion via the proposed bill.

The chances are however small that a majority wants to punish wearing a burqa with a prison sentence. Additionally, other parties will likely not accept that Wilders makes a distinction between a burqa and other materials covering the face; the PVV does not want to make wearing certain motorbike helmets and balaclavas a criminal offence.

Wilders did say yesterday on radio programme Stand.nl that he would be willing to also ban balaclavas if a Lower House majority would otherwise not emerge for his proposal. According to a poll by Stand.nl a large majority considers 'wearing a burqa should be banned.' Seventy-eight percent agreed with this statement, and 22 percent disagreed.

http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/article451302.ece/

Geert Wilders want to ban the Koran. Thats what the chairman of the Freedom Party wrote in an letter he sent to the Volksrant. The politician compares the Islamic holy books to Mein Kampf by Hitler. Since the end of WWII the book may no longer be sold in Holland. Wilders on the Koran: 'Ban that misery causing book the same way as with Mein Kampf!'

[By banning the Koran] The politician will in this way give a signal to radical Muslims who use the Koran as an excuse to legitimise violence. As an example he took the "attackers" of Ehsan Jami. They beat up the chairman of the "Committee for Ex Muslims" probably because of his controversial comments about Islam, According to Wilders the perpetrators found something in the Koran as an excuse to attack Jami.

Wilders: verbied de Koran, ook in moskee

Van onze verslaggeefster Sara Berkeljon

AMSTERDAM - Geert Wilders wil de Koran verbieden. Dat schrijft de fractievoorzitter van de Partij voor de Vrijheid vandaag in een ingezonden brief in de Volkskrant. De politicus vergelijkt het islamitische heilige boek met Mein Kampf van Adolf Hitler. Dat boek mag in Nederland sinds het einde van de Tweede Wereldoorlog niet meer worden verkocht. Wilders over de Koran: ‘Verbied dat ellendige boek zoals ook Mein Kampf verboden is!'

De Koran als studieobject wil Wilders nog wel toestaan, maar daar blijft het bij: ‘Een verbod is een verbod. Dus moet niet alleen verkoop, maar ook gebruik in moskeeën en bezit in huiselijke kring worden bestraft. Als dat in de huidige wetgeving niet kan, moet er een nieuwe verbodsbepaling komen.'

De politicus wil op die manier een signaal afgeven aan radicale moslims die de Koran zouden gebruiken om geweld te legitimeren. Als voorbeeld haalt hij ‘de overvallers' van Ehsan Jami aan. Zij sloegen de voorzitter van het Comité voor afvallige moslims zaterdag in elkaar – vermoedelijk vanwege zijn controversiële uitspraken over de islam. Volgens Wilders vonden de daders in de Koran een excuus Jami te molesteren.

‘Genoeg is genoeg', schrijft de fractievoorzitter. Nadat hij tijdens de verkiezingscampagne de toename van het aantal moslims in Nederland een ‘tsunami' noemde, en na zijn pleidooien voor een stop op de bouw van moskeeën en voor een algeheel boerkaverbod, richt de politicus zijn pijlen nu op de Koran: een ‘fascistisch boek', aldus Wilders.

Hij zal voor zijn voorstel geen Kamermeerderheid krijgen, beseft de PVV-voorman. ‘Helaas worden onze voorstellen wel vaker met 141 tegen 9 stemmen verworpen. Maar als ik me daardoor zou laten leiden, kan ik er beter meteen mee stoppen. Dit boek zet aan tot haat en moord, en past daarom niet in onze rechtsorde. Als moslims willen participeren, moeten ze afstand nemen van deze Koran. Ik zie in dat dit veel gevraagd is, maar we moeten stoppen met het doen van concessies.'

Printer-friendly version Email this item to a friend