This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3098

Emerson Vermaat: Former Communist Ella Vogelaar now embraces Islamic culture: Portrait of a Dutch government Minister

August 15, 2007

By Emerson Vermaat

Since February 2007, there is very outspoken Minister for Housing, Neighborhoods and Integration in the Netherlands. Her name is Ella Vogelaar and she was born in 1949. She is an outspoken leftist and a self-proclaimed feminist. But in interviews she appeared to be tolerant of young Dutch Moroccan criminals and praised the role of Islamic culture in Dutch society.

Her parents, simple farmers in the Southeastern Dutch province of Zeeland, were conservative Calvinist Christians and raised her that way. But then came the 1960s and 1970s, the decades of student revolts, the New Left, "Ché Guevara" and the sudden resurgence and popularization of Marxist-Leninist concepts in the West. Calvinist and Catholic Christians or former Christians became Marxists or Communists, suddenly there was a mutual challenge to revolution.[1 Many Christians and theologians embraced "political theology," "the theology of revolution," "liberation theology" and "black theology," all of which denounced "Western capitalism." The magic word now was "class struggle."[2

Ella Vogelaar was fascinated by these new ideas. She became a Communist. For some reason, Calvinist and Catholic Christians who converted to Marxism or the New Left were usually very fanatical and outspoken. Nowadays, many of the leftists and (former) Marxists of the 1960s and 1970s found a new cause in the fight against so-called "Islamophobia." Dutch government Minister Ella Vogelaar is one of those former Marxists who now seem to embrace Islamic culture. A leftist feminist who is now looking for new allies and friends in the conservative Muslim world.

"Islamic culture is so deeply entrenching itself in Dutch society, that in the long run one would speak of a land that is based on a Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition," Ella Vogelaar, the Dutch Minister for Housing, Neighborhoods and Integration, told the Dutch daily newspaper Trouw.[3 She claims that Islam will contribute to Dutch culture and society in a similar way as Jews and Christians have done in past centuries. "I want to help Muslims feel at home here, Islam and Muslims must take root here."

"Our society has been formed by Jewish-Christian traditions. These are our roots. Centuries ago, the Jewish community came to the Netherlands and now we can say: The Netherlands is a land formed by Judeo-Christian traditions. I can imagine we will see a similar process with Islam."

According to the Minister of Integration, there is a "mutual process" in which cultures influence and stimulate each other.

Communists helped Khomeini to gain power in 1979

Afshin Ellian, Professor of Social Cohesion, Citizenship and Multicultural Studies, cynicly referred to Ella Vogelaar in a Dutch radio interview as "the Minister of Islamization."[4 Ellian (Tehran, 1966), a former refugee from Iran who first fled to Afghanistan and then arrived in the Netherlands in 1989, knows what he is talking about. Nearly three decades ago he was a leftist teen-ager who enthousiastically demonstrated against America and the Shah. Ellian later described how he and many other Iranian schoolboys and students "were naive, we had not read many books and were poisoned by a primitive kind of anti-Americanism."

"The intellectual baggage of the youngsters who wanted to replace the Shah's tiranny by freedom consisted of texts written by Che Guevara, Lenin and good old Marx, the activist. But what did they know about freedom? Unfortunately, this generation of Iranians only had a vague idea about this concept."[5

In 1978 and 1979 many leftist students and intellectuals alligned themselves with conservative Mullahs, who supported Ayatollah Khomeini, an old and bitter fanatic. In 1978 and early 1979 Khomeini was still in exile in France and was making all kinds of promises to the people from the left, Christians, Jews and the Sunni minority. (Once in power, the shrewd old cleric would quickly break all his previous solemn pledges about freedom after the fall of the Shah.) Ellian wrote that his generation praised earthly and heavenly gods, "we appealed to a false Allah, false heroes, imaginary enemies and false philosophers." "Men who promised to bring light but brought darkness instead."[6 Khomeini was one of these evil men.

The Shah left Iran on January 16, 1979, after having installed a civilian government led by Shahpur Bakhtiar. A triumphant Khomeini returned from exile to Iran on February 1, 1979, and the masses took the streets and welcomed their new leader. Many leftists, Communists and Marxists also had high expectations. The Communist Tudeh Party supported Khomeini and initially collaborated with the new regime. Khomeini was already de facto head of state and appointed his own prime minister, Mehdi Bazargan, on February 5, 1979. Bazargan was to head the provisional government of the "Islamic Republic of Iran."[7 But the army was still supporting Bakhtiar. On February 10, 1979, Marxist and Islamic guerrilla groups attacked two military bases. One day later, the army declared its neutrality in the political struggle.[8Bakhtiar went underground and would later apply for political asylum in Europe.

Once in power, Khomeini broke with his former allies from the left and began to persecute them. (The leadership of the Tudeh Party were arrested in 1982 and the party was subsequently banned.)

There were already frictions between Marxists and Islamists shortly before Khomeini took over. The alliance between the leftist and the Islamists had always been an uneasy one. But it cannot be denied that the in Iranian left helped Khomeini to return to Iran. Indeed, the attack on the army barracks by Marxist and Islamic guerrilla groups in Feburary 1979 was crucial in determining the fate of Iran. It was too late when the leftists and the Marxists realized that Khomeini was another Hitler and that the clerics who supported him were fascists.

When Ellian arrived in the Netherlands in 1989, he was happy to be in a free country. He studied law at he Catholic University of Tilburg and wrote a doctoral dissertation on the process of reconciliation in South-Africa.

After September 11, 2001, he began to write critical articles and essays about Islam and "multiculturalism." "Multiculturalists are a kind of postmodernistic tyrants," he wrote in NRC Handelsblad on November 30, 2002. Their critics are being demonized as extreme rightists. Meanwhile, we are returning to the Middle Ages, many of the 800,000 Muslims are poorly integrated into society and Islamic fundamentalism is gaining ground, Ellian wrote.[9

His comments are articles were not appreciated by conservative Muslims.

Ellian who fled to the Netherlands because he hoped to be safe and secure there, began to receive death threats. Radical Muslims regarded and regard him as an "apostate Muslim." No longer he can walk freely in the streets, body guards are protecting him and his family night and day. The fascists and their brutal methods are back and Ellian is now haunted by the ghosts of the past. And this occurs in a country that pretends to be the freeist country in the world.

Ehsan Jami's lonely battle against the fanatics

Also persecuted by today's fascists in the Netherlands is Ehsan Jami, one of Ellian's best friends. Ehsan Jami was born in Iran in 1985. He, his sister and his parents arrived in the Netherlands in 1996, later he joined the Dutch Labor Party and became a member of the city council of Leidschendam-Voorburg. He lost his Muslim faith and founded his "Committee of Former Muslims" in May 2007. Ellian did not join the committee but became Jami's chief advisor. The "multiculturalists" in the Dutch Labor Party were anything but happy about the new initiative. They feared this could antagonize Muslim voters. In the crucial election year of 2006, the Labor Party lost a lot of Moroccan voters.[EV1 [10Some party members accused Jami of "stigmatizing" Muslims, widening the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims. Jami reacted as follows:

"But I say: We must call a spade a spade. Why do we have to protect our grassroots support? We must take into account what is good for the Netherlands."[11

Eddy Terstall, a prominent party member and a personal friend, "advised" Jami to moderate his tone, to be more careful in choosing his words when he criticized Islam and to take into account the views of Muslim members of the party. This was done in consultation with two members of parliament who also belong to the Labor Party.[12

Ehsan Jami's view on the Muslim prophet Mohammed are very outspoken. In an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw Jami compared Mohammed to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and added:

"A terrible man, somebody who speaks nice words, but who draws a knife behind your back to stab you. I was terribly disappointed when I discovered that Mohammed was not the kind of man I believed in during my youth."[13

Ellian was not happy about the interview and said such statements would deflect from the useful initiative to form a committee of former Muslims.[14 Ellian, no doubt, was concerned that radical Muslims would now have a motive to kill Jami. They believe that those who "insult the prophet" are guilty of blasphemy and deserve death (Koran: "Woe to every slanderer, defamer!" Sura 104 verse 1.) This is what the 14th century Islamic theologian Ibn Taymiyya wrote in an authoritative "fatwa" or religious decree.[15And the Koran (Sura 2 verse 217) says that renegate Muslims or "apostates" must be killed: "And whoever of you turns back from his religion, then he dies while an unbeliever – these it is whose works go for nothing in this world and the Herafter."

Ehsan Jami received already threats before he gave his interview to Trouw, and told the newspaper he was not afraid of receiving more threats. Such threats would only encourage him to go on, he said. In July and August 2007 the threats issued by radical Muslims against Jami became more serious and his friend Afshin Ellian was quite worried that some day a fanatic would kill him. Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch Moroccan, killed Theo van Gogh in November 2004 invoking Ibn Taymiyya's fatwa on killing those who defile the name of the prophet. He wrote and said he had also targeted Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a renegade Muslim, and called on other Muslims to kill her.[16

A few weeks before van Gogh was killed, Sheikh Fawaz Jneid, a Dutch Syrian firebrand cleric in the city of The Hague, cursed both van Gogh and Hirsi Ali in a sermon in the As-Soennah mosque, wishing them to be dead.[17 Three years later, on June 23, 2007, Fawaz's website "Al-Yaqeen" directly attacked Ehsan Jami calling him "an incestuous weasel" and "a remnant of the Persian adorers of the sun."[18The next day six men told Jami that he would be hung. Jami, who was taking a walk near his house, was terrified.[19

On Saturday August 4, 2007, Jami and his girlfriend were suddenly assaulted by two Moroccans and a bearded Somali. "Fucking Jew, fucking homosexual, fucking traitor to your country!" they cried. "Why are you talking bullshit about Islam and the prophet Mohammed?"[20 (Traitor to your country – "landverrader" in Dutch – probably refers to the Islamic Republic of Iran where Jami was born.) The three fanatics beat and kicked him and Jami fell to the ground and began to bleed. His assaulters managed to escape and Jami reported the incident to the police. Apart from his girlfriend there were seven other witnesses who saw what happened.

Afshin Ellian raised the issue with Tjibbe Joustra, the National Counter-Terrorism Coordinator in The Hague on Monday August 6, 2007. Ellian was deeply alarmed over the fact that his friend Ehsan Jami had received so many threats and even been beaten up, yet he had not yet received the police protection he needed so much. That same day measures were taken to give Jami round-the-clock protection. He was very angry about what had happened. "What these guys need is a ticket to the desert where they came from," he told the Dutch TV program Netwerk. He said he had been threatened before by a young man who drew a knife. (When Bouyeri killed Theo van Gogh he first used a gun and then slid his defenseless victim's throat with a knife.) Jami expressed surprise that no one from Labor Party leadership had called him to show solidarity.[21]Afshin Ellian was also angry about this. "Ehsan Jami, a fellow member of the Labor Party was beaten up on Saturday, yet no one from the party leadership called him," Ellian said on Dutch radio. "And we did not hear a word in public from Ella Vogelaar," he added. "She is the Minister of Islamization." "She did made statements about Islam which no one from the Muslim community asked her to make."[22

But interim Party Chairman Ruud Koole publicly denounced the assault on Ehsan Jami, saying: "This is absolutely contrary to anything we stand for... The perpetrators must be found and punished."[23 And two Labor Party members of parliament wanted the Minister of Justice and the Minister of the Interior to investigate the motives of the perpetrators.

After an Islamic website[24 published Jami's cell phone number and his private and e-mail addresses, Jami received even more death threats. He was called a "Mortad," an apostate. Three years ago, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was also called a "devilish Mortada" on a radical Islamist website. And her private address was published as well. Jami received threatening phone calls, saying that he will die soon, there were texts and songs in Arabic, sometimes he only heard the words "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great.).[25

The decision was then taken to transfer Ehsan Jami to a secret location.

In an interview in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant Labor Party leader and Finance Minister Wouter Bos admitted that he had not made a phone call to Ehsan Jami. "There are two others (Ruud Koole and Aleid Wolfsen) who are in touch with him," he explained lamely. He said the Labor Party was the only party whose election program emphasized the right to forsake your religion, and that includes Islam. However, he rebuked Jami for making insulting statements about Mohammed:

"Everybody has the right to make those statements. And if he needs protection, he must have it. But if you ask: Do you have to make insulting statements about Mohammed to advocate apostacy, my answer is no."[26

Eddy Terstall was shocked when he heard about the physical violence against Ehsan Jami whom he regards as a friend. "It looks as if we are back in Nazi Germany in the 1930s," he said. "What the Labor Party thinks about Islam is less relevant. The discussion must focus first and foremost on the freedom of conscience."[27

De Volkskrant said in an editorial comment:

"It is sad and unacceptable that a critic of Islam who stands up for the rights of those who cannot believe anylonger in the religion of their youth, cannot walk freely in the streets in the Netherlands. What is needed is decisive action against those who assault him, and against all those who try to silence him by issuing threats. At stake are fundamental human rights such freedom of belief and the integrity of the human body. He deserves solidarity from everybody who takes these values seriously....

Jami is a Labor Party member of the city council of Leidschendam-Voorburg. That party still does not know what to do with Ehsan Jami. Chairman Ruud Koole condemns the mal-treatment but the party leadership keep silent and did not contact Jami either."[28

Jami's case was not unique. Moussa Aynan, a Labor Party city council member in Haarlem, said he had also received threats. He complained that he never heard anything from national politicians belonging to the same party. Aynan, a Dutch Moroccan, was especially disappointed that Khadija Arib, a member of parliament for he Labor Party and another Dutch Moroccan, never contacted him.[29

Ella Vogelaar: Blame society, not Moroccan frequent offenders

The Dutch Labor Party finds it hard to admit that most of the problems described above are caused by non-Western immigrants. Such hesitations are not restricted to the Labor Party, though. It is what Ehsan Jami calls the fear of autochthonous or native Dutch to discriminate against others. "Don't say what you think because it is about Muslims and Islam."[30

Poorly integrated non-Western immigrants are largely responsible for the high crime rates in the so-called urban problem districts and suburbs ("probleemwijken" in Dutch). A recent Dutch study conducted by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and the Central Statistics Office found there was a very strong difference in crime rates between native Dutch and non-Western immigrants. Antilleans, Moroccans, Turks, sub-Saharan Africans, Arabs, Latin Americans, East Europeans committed much more crimes than immigrants from Western countries, native Dutch and East Asians. (Antilleans and Moroccans are the most notorious frequent offenders.) We are talking here about violence, sexual offenses, offenses related to issuing threats, crimes against property, violent crimes against property, public order offenses, traffic offenses and drug offenses.[31

After visiting 40 urban problem districts, Dutch Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar appeared to be remarkably tolerant toward young Moroccan criminals in the urban problem district of Utrecht-Kanaleneiland. Of course, the Minister did not approve of the crimes they committed – "no way!" -, "but you must realize," she said, "that you are not born a criminal, you become one. It is a process." Many of these youngsters are disappointed with Dutch society, she clarified. They can't find trainee jobs. "You call six times, and six times they turn you down because of your (Moroccan) name." It is much easier for native Dutch to find trainee jobs, she stressed. These Moroccan youngsters see how others possess the latest type of cell phones and are dressed in accordance with the latest fashion, they see all that glamour, their brother is probably also involved crime, and so they want to join in.[32

This view is not shared by everyone in the Labor Party. Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Dutch Moroccan Deputy Minister for Social Affairs, criticized those who showed too much understanding for so-called victims of discrimination. "That does not help us any further and does not make them good citizens," he said in an interview three months later. He also said he learned a lot of lessons from what happened in Amsterdam.

"It is the lack of proper education rather than discrimination that prevents you from finding a job. It is easy to point to discrimination, but it is a fact that some young Dutch are also frequently turned down. The term discrimination must not be made subject to inflation."[33

Recent studies show that many young Dutch Moroccans do not finish school. Seven out of ten Maroccans aged between 17 and 23 years leave school prematurely and do not have diploma.[34The same applies to Antilleans. That is the problem ignored by people like Vogelaar. It is always easy to blame "society" and ignore your own mistakes, especially when your heart is being hardened after having listened to well-meaning multiculturalists. It is the kindness that kills.

Another critic of Ella Vogelaar is Nahed Selim, a Dutch writer and columnist born in Egypt in 1953. Selim wrote a courageous study in Dutch on the wives of the prophet which is very outspoken on the discrimination of women in Islamic cultures.[35 She attacked Vogelaar in an article in the Dutch newspaper Trouw saying this is just another example of a minister who believes that integration can be achieved by preventing discrimination: Moroccan boys would not become criminals if they would not invariably be turned down by Dutch society. Selim blames Vogelaar for being an advocate of multiculturalism, "a philosophy which nearly enjoys the status of a religion and is highly popular in leftist parties." Multiculturalists do not see the need for immigrants to obey Dutch laws. "All cultures must be respected, you are not allowed to criticize them, any criticism of religion and culture is wrong except when you talk about your own white, Christian, capitalist culture," Selim writes sarcastically. Multiculturalism leads to segregation, it does not help immigrants to integrate into society, on the contrary.[36

It is quite fascinating that fully integrated, respectable and hard-working immigrants like Afshin Ellian, Ehsan Jami, Ahmed Aboutaleb and Nahed Selim have a much clearer view of reality than political correct and simplistic politicians like Ella Vogelaar who bend over backbards to please alleged victims of discrimination.

The same kind of political correctness is a huge problem in Britain where caucasian sociologists and criminologists often do not blame the criminals themselves but "society," "the police" and the "criminal justice process." They are not serious researchers anymore but act and write as if they were defense lawyers. British Home Office statistics show that Black and Asian ethnic groups are responsible for a relatively high number of crimes (violence against the person, sexual offenses, robbery, burglary, theft, fraud and forgery, criminal damage, drugs, other offenses). In 2003/4 blacks were responsible for 27,5 percent of the robberies. Sexual and drug offenses also scored high (7,7 and 13, 9 percent respectively) 37} There are notorious black gangs and gang wars in major British cities.[38 This is not something new. Home Office statistics about the male prison population by ethnic group between 1985 and 1999 show that blacks and, too a lesser extent, Asians were over represented.[39

Corettta Phillips and Ben Bowling, two British criminologists, lay much of the blame on the "racist" police and "police prejudices." Blacks, they say, are criminalized, poor and socially excluded."[40

"Crime within minority communities is, in part, a consequence of the experience of unfairness... Compounded by racial discrimination within the criminal justice process (both authors fail to give examples, V.) a disproportionate number of people within black and other minority ethnic communities acquire stop and search histories, intelligence files, entries on the police national computer and the DNA data base, criminal convictions, and prison record."[41

It is quite easy to blame the police and the criminal justice system for the ills of society and such accusations have frequently been made before by defense lawyers and well-meaning clerics. Already in 1984, Dr. P.A.J. Weddington, a social psychologist at the University of Reading, criticized those who easily linked black crime to the "racist" police:

"To blame the police alone for poor police-race relations and to treat their actions with suspicion, is to distract attention from those fundamental problems of urban decay, deprivation and discrimination. It is to indulge in the facile belief that if only police officers can be made, somehow, better men and women, then all will be well. This is not compassion, it is delusion."[42

Ella Vogelaar's career as a leftist rabble rouser

Catharina Pieternella ("Ella") Vogelaar was born in 1949 and grew up in the Dutch province of Zeeland, a bulwark of traditional Calvinism. She was raised in a traditional protestant (Calvinistic) farmer's household.

Vogelaar studied at the leftist "Social Academy De Horst" in Driebergen where she was fully immersed in the Marxist inspired "Theology of Revolution" of the 1960s and early 1970s. This theology was first launched by Princeton Theological Seminary theologian Richard Shaull at the World Council of Churches Conference on Church and Society in 1966. He and other "theologians of the revolution" incorrectly portrayed Jesus Christ as a revolutionary and resistance fighter.[43Vogelaar's mentor at the academy was Piet Reckman (1928-2007), a fanatical ideologue of "socialist revolutions" and advocate of civil disobedience." Although formally a member of the Dutch Labor Party (PvdA), Reckman was ideologically much closer to the Dutch Communist Party (CPN). "Parliamentary democracy without socialization of the means of production (a typical Marxist term, V.) is unthinkable," he said in 1978.[44 Some of his critics called him the "new Lenin" and he surely was as fanatical as Lenin. He often clashed with leading members of the Labor Party whom he accused of making too many compromises. 45 Reckman was a notorious troublemaker, he even clashed with those in the Social Academy who did not quite share his extreme leftist views. So, in September 1971, he and his friend Bert ter Schegget, a theologian, founded an "alternative academy" based on Marxist-Leninist principles.[46] That same month, Reckman published a book on the strategy and methods of social action.[47 This book justified violent revolutions, penetration and infiltration techniques, espionage, defamation, lying,manipulating, stealing and undemocratic actions – all these "methods of social action" served to undermine the existing social order.

Ella Vogelaar adored Piet Reckman who told the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad 23 years later: "Ella developed in a socialist direction. She took an active part in the group lessons and was quite outspoken."[48 She was in her final year at the Academy and got her diploma in 1972. That same year she decided to join the Dutch Communist Party. She was not the only one who was raised in a Calvinist household who would later become a Communist. There were also lots of young pseudo-revolutionaries who embraced Marx, Lenin, Mao and Castro.[49

Ella Vogelaar left the party in 1984 and in these twelve years she would be more or less loyal to its line and directives. In this highly critical period the Dutch Communist Party, in turn, was totally loyal to its sister party in the Soviet Union (CPSU). The party even received money from Moscow for its crucial role in the Dutch peace movement. The Dutch Domestic Security Service (BVD, currently known as "General Intelligence and Security Service" or AIVD) closely monitored these activities. (There were BVD-files on all party members, also on Ella Vogelaar.) With Moscow's help the party launched a highly successful campaign against the so-called "Neutron Bomb" in 1977 and against NATO's plan to deploy medium range missiles in 1979.[50The BVD reported that the party considered churches and trade unions the most important pressure groups outside of Parliament. Moreover, these CPN actions were "supported by more direct influencing operations from the Soviet bloc," the confidential BVD report said. These operations included "the actions of the East European embassies and intelligence services."[51]The BVD also reported that "substantial amounts of money" had been given by "Moscow" and "East Berlin" to key people in the Dutch Communist Party.[52

Although Ella Vogelaar was not a traditional hard-core member of the Dutch Communist Party, she was young and very enthousiastic and loyally supported all the party's activities and its pro-Soviet line. She would later admit that she had denied the negative sides of Soviet Communism during those twelve years of party membership, referring to her attitude as "fascinating and frightening."[53

She also followed party instructions to join a trade union and gain influence there. According BVD-findings, this was about the time when the party attempted to penetrate and manipulate Dutch trade unions. Ella Vogelaar, who was a socio-cultural worker in the city of Gouda at the time, opted for the leftist teachers union ABOB ("Algemene Bond van Onderwijzend Personeel"). There were at least 50 other party members active in the 40,000 strong union. She would soon clash with those elements in ABOP who were loyal to the Dutch Labor Party. Their views on politics and society were not very moderate either, but Vogelaar embraced even more radical views. She really belonged to the far left fringe of the political spectrum and believed in the Marxist-Leninist concept of class struggle and the need to uproot "Capitalism." She and other Communists soon played an active role in ABOB's socio-cultural trainers section ("Sectie Vormingswerk") pressing the union to take a more militant line. They wanted the Labor Party to form a coalition government with the Communist Party and frequently criticized the moderate trade union leader and Labor party member Wim Kok for repudiating the class struggle. They also wanted ABOB to condemn "NATO policies" and express support for Communist (i.e. Soviet bloc) inspired "peace initiatives."

Those in ABOB loyal to the Dutch Labor Party had reason to believe that Communists like Ella Vogelaar wanted to take over the union.[54 ABOB-chairman Jan van den Bosch frequently clashed with Vogelaar who, like her mentor and friend Piet Reckman, was a troublemaker and manipulator with clear leadership aspirations. She had to cope with a lot of resistance before she became one of the paid ABOB leaders in 1982, the first time a Communist got this position. What she wanted was to succeed Jan van den Bosch as ABOB-leader and chairman. She left the highly discredited Communist Party in 1984 hoping this would improve her chances. (She would later join the Labor Party.) She failed twice in her attempt at succeeding van den Bosch. There was a third chance in 1988 when van den Bosch, who was 62 now, announced he wanted to retire from the union. Van den Bosch wanted his deputy Johan Terpstra to succceed him, but Ella Vogelaar again nominated herself for the top position. Once again, the union was torn apart by frictions, conflicts an rivalries.[55 The idea was born to create the position of co-chairmanship but Terpstra did not want to work with Vogelaar and withdrew his nomination. Thus, Vogelaar, now a former Communist, became ABOB chairwoman in 1988. Vogelaar's rather authoritarian leadership's style and unpleasant shrieking voice created fresh conflicts. She would later admit she had made mistakes describing herself as a control freak.[56

The teacher and education union ABOP was alligned with the much bigger trade union FNV ("Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging"), which was very close to the Dutch Labor Party. (FNV Chairman Wim Kok, a moderate Social Democrat, became Prime Minister in 1994.) When Johan Stekelenburg, Kok's successor, asked Vogelaar in 1994 to become his deputy, she said yes. But again she began to clash with others, and even the amiable Stekelenburg regretted his decision that he had made her his deputy. She wanted his job. Vogelaar was also intransigent when it came to making compromises. She clashed with FNV coordinator Lodewijk de Waal who tried to negotiate shorter work hours and pressed for a 36-hour week. When the big companies he was negotiating with refused to give in De Waal realized he had to tone down and change his priorities. But Vogelaar meddled in the delicate negotiations and publicly announced that FNV even wanted a 32-hour workweek.[57 De Waal, a very able negotiator, was flabbergasted.

When Vogelaar announced she wanted to succeed Stekelenburg, Lodewijk de Waal said he would resign if she would be elected. De Waal, who had much more support in the union than Vogelaar, won and became chairman. Vogelaar was upset and resigned as Vice Chairwoman lamely blaming the male dominated culture in the union. But De Waal said it had nothing to with rivalries between men and women, it had just been a matter of different approaches, and he chose Kitty Roozemond, a woman, as his deputy.[58 When she was still Vice Chairwoman of FNV, Vogelaar successfully blocked proposals for reforming the outdated social welfare system, proposals intended to make it more transparant and efficient.[59

When Vogelaar left the union at the end of May 1997, she complained that she had not been beaten in a fair fight, no it had been "a murky process." She also blamed Johan Stekelenburg who did not want her to talk to the media about a conflict inside the union.[60

Vogelaar became vice-chairwoman of a taskforce dealing with the naturalization of immigrants. Ad Melkert, the Labor Party Minister of Social Affairs and Employment offered her a job in his ministry. In 2003 she became the first woman to chair the board of commissioners at Unilever, a Dutch multinational food company. Thus, the former Communist had become a super capitalist, claiming now she accepted the principles of market economics.[61(Not so strange if you earn much more money than the Dutch Prime Minister.) But she still admired her old mentor Piet Reckman whom she greeted very warmly in May 2005 at a special celebration at "De Horst" in Driebergen.

Ella Vogelaar's substantial monthly income increased even more in 2004 after she became chairwoman of the board of NOVIB, a heavily subsidized leftist relief and aid organization closely linked to the Dutch Labor Party. NOVIB earned a reputation of not always spending money wisely. The Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported in December 2005 that a substantial amount of NOVIB money for Kosovo had ended up in the coffers the local mafia. Another part of the money was never spent on relief aid but ended up in NOVIB's own coffers.[62

After the Asian tsunami in December 2004, Dutch citizens donated some 200 million Euros to the eight cooperating relief organizations, one of which was NOVIB. One and a half year later, only 41 percent of the money had been spent due to inefficiencies, conflicts and wrong decisions in the field.[63

The ghosts of fascism

"It looks as if we are back in the Nazi Germany of the 1930s," 42-year old Eddy Terstall said when he commented on what had happened to his friend Ehsan Jami. "No, the demons are not banished, and they will seek a new victim," Carl Gustav Jung wrote in 1945.[64 Once again, West European nations are haunted by the ghosts of fascism.

In today's Europe, aggressive Muslim youths threaten, intimidate, beat up or even kill the people they so deeply despise. They are like the fanatical members of the Hitler Youth and the notorious Sturm Abteiling (SA) in Nazi Germany. Keep in mind that these Nazi fanatics formed a minority during the so-called Weimar Republic in the 1920s and early 1903s when Germany was a parliamentary democracy. Increasingly, though, they began to threaten, intimidate and beat up Jews and political opponents. In the final years of the Weimar Republic, there were numerous violent clashes between young Nazis and their opponents. The fanatics of the Hitler Youth were willing to die for the their Fuehrer (=Leader) Hitler. Their longing for martyrdom, the cult of death and the singing of Nazi fighting songs turned their ideological enthousiasm into a kind of pseudo-religion.[65 There are certainly parallels between these Nazi youngsters and today's young Islamist fanatics. In both cases they follow some kind of leader (Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Abu Mousab Al-Zarqawi, etc.). They are extremely violent and willing to die. In both cases they aspire to martyrdom. In both cases they are wiling to kill their enemies and annihilate the Jews.

Violence against Jews and political opponents increased rapidly after the Nazi takeover in 1933. For example, a young Jewish boy was whipped by a 13-year old member of the Hitler Youth. The father of the boy complained but was told that his son would not be able to go to school anymore should he dare to report the incident to the police.[66]Jewish shopkeepers and market merchants were intimidated and beaten up by members of the Hitler Youth shouting slogans like: "Don't buy from Jews, for he who buys from Jews is not a German!" Two Jewish women were maltreated and beaten up in the middle of the street.[67

This kind of aggressive behavior is not very different from the behavior of contemporary Moroccan youths in the Netherlands who feel superior to their often defenseless victims and who usually operate in small groups. A peaceful Dutch couple in Amsterdam was forced out of their home by angry Moroccan youths, a swastica was painted on their car.[68 A Jewish resident of the Amsterdam Diamond neighborhood had a box full of fireworks thrown into his house. The man was chased down the street with anti-Semitic slogans.[69 The police and the authorities are afraid to really crack down on the Moroccan youth gangs, such a policy might provoke serious riots, riots like those in Paris.[70 In some parts of Amsterdam-West it is not wise to wear a yarmulka or kippah, once you are recognized as a Jew, chances that some young Muslim fanatic will beat you up are far from remote.

There are, of course, huge differences between Nazi ideology and Islam. Nazi ideology was based on race and blood. Islam does not really care about blood and race, it is interested in making converts everywhere. Nevertheless, the Nazi regime was courting the Arabs and the Muslims.[71 Some of the most fanatic allies of he Nazis were Muslims. (The Bosnian Waffen-SS Handschar Divsion and Haj Amin Al-Husseini are notorious examples.)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali made the following observation in her 2005 press freedom speech:

"It is true, National Socialism was imposed by military force. It is also true that a large portion of the Germans willingly and knowingly embraced this ideology. This is what the French philosopher Revel in a different context called ‘the totalitarian temptation.'

The message of Islamic fundamentalism differs from the message of National Socialism, yet in other aspects it is suspiciously close to this totalitarian tempation'."[72

Speaking in 1938, the famous Swiss analytical psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) said:

"Hitler's ‘religion' is the nearest to Mohammedanism, realistic, earthy, promising the maximum rewards in this life, but with a Moslem-like Valhallah into which worthy Germans may enter and continue to enjoy themselves. Like Mohammedanism, it teaches the virtue of the sword. Hitler's first idea is to make his people powerful because the spirit of the Aryan German deserves to be supported by might, by muscle and by steel.

Of course, it is not a spiritual religion in the sense we ordinarily use this term."

"The Germans are highly impressionable.They go to extremes;they are always a bit unbalanced."[73Some authors who have studied the Arab mind claim that many Arabs are also highly impressionable, there is "a pronounced tendency to take a polarized view of man and the world, to see everywhere stark contrasts rather than gradations, to note opposites rather than gradations," writes Raphael Patai in his excellent and topical book The Arab Mind. "Emotionalism can crop up on the most unexpected occasions."[74 The famous writer V.S Naipaul believes there is an "element of neurosis and nihilism in the Islam of the converted (=non-Arab) peoples. "These countries can be easily set on the boil." Pakistan and Iran, he writes, are good examples.[75

There was a row in Holland when Geert Wilders, an outspoken member of parliament, drew parallels between the Koran and Hitler's Mein Kampf. ‘Prohibit that miserable book, just like Mein Kampf has been prohibited," Wilders wrote in De Volkskrant:

"The essence of the problem is the fascist Islam, the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed, as laid down in the Islamic Mein Kampf: the Koran."[76

On behalf of the Dutch cabinet, Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar quickly condemned Wilders' proposal to ban to Koran as an infringement on religious freeedom and offensive to the majority of Muslims in the Netherlands. "It widens the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims," Vogelaar said.[77 The same minister who was conspicuous by her silence when Ehsan Jami, a fellow party member, was beaten up by angry Muslims, now finds it necessary to condemn Wilders. Apparently, the Dutch cabinet is afraid that there will be violent anti-Dutch riots throughout the Muslim world, similar to the ones against the Danish cartoons last year.

This is not to say I agree with what Wilders said. I share Afshin Ellian's view that religious freedom must be respected. We may not agree with the Koran (I certainly don't), but it is the holy book of the Muslims. Moreover, Wilders' comparison of the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf is based on a misconception arising from oversimplification. The Koran is primarily a religious book written by several people, Mein Kampf is primarily a political program written by one man. It is true, National Socialism was not just a political movement. To a certain extend this ideology or Weltanschaaung was also a political religion.[78 Hitler, born and raised in a Catholic family, often invoked God, "the Almighty Creator" or "Providence" in Mein Kampf and more frequently in his speeches.[79 But he did not claim he was a divine prophet who received his revelations directly from God. There was also lot of hedonism in Nazi ideology. Moreover, a ban on a religious book like the Koran is hardly possible, indeed it would be counterproductive.

Finally, it should be taken into account that not all Muslims are fanatical believers in the Koran. There are also Muslims who believe in tolerance and do not want to kill unbelievers or apostates or wage jihad against infidels. They believe those verses in the Koran primarily apply to the times of Mohammed. Only the real fanatics, those who are willing to kill, are fascists, the others are not. Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, Mohammed Bouyeri, Samir Azzouz, Mohammed Sidique Khan and all those stupid young jihadists who threaten or assault others, who create havoc in Iraq and Afghanistan, who take defenseless hostages and do not hesitate to kill women and children, their admirers and apologists – they are today's fascists. Unfortunately, we are not talking about a small group of people. These people are extremely dangerous, possibly as dangerous as the Nazis were. They are evil and demonic, claiming to act in the name of Allah, they in fact represent the powers of Hell on earth. They can take over a country like Pakistan and start a nuclear war. They can become nuclear terrorists and blackmail the rest of the world. The demons are not banished but the forces of evil will not prevail in the end. The Nazis were also beaten, fortunately. "Dictatorship – the fetish worship of one man – is a passing phase," Churchill said on October 16, 1938.[80 He was right. Let us hope and pray that today's terrorism will also be a passing phase.

Emerson Vermaat is an investigative reporter in the Netherlands and author of The World Council of Churches and Politics (Freedom House, New York, 1989). His website is: www.emersonvermaat.com.



[1José Míguez Bonino, Christians and Marxists. The Mutual Challenge to Revolution (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1976); José Míguez Bonino, Revolutionary Theology Comes of Age (London: SPCK/Philadelphia: Fortress Press. 1975); Gustavo Gutiérrez, Teología de la Liberacíon. Perspectivas (Lima: CEP, 1971).

[2 For a thorough and critical analysis of these theologies, see: Edward Norman, Christianity and the World Order (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 7-28, 42-71.

[3Trouw (Amsterdam based daily newspaper), 14 July 2007, p. 1, Trouw/De Verdieping, 14 July 2007, p. 4, 5 ("Vogelaar: Islam wordt deel van onze cultuur"); see also: Emerson Vermaat, The Dutch Labor Party and Islam, in: Militant Islam Monitor, 31 July 2007.

[4Afshin Ellian interviewed on Dutch Radio One, 7 August 2007 (8:10 a.m).

[5 Afshin Ellian, Brieven van een Pers. Over Nederlands en Islamitisch Kannibalisme (Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff, 2005), p. 166.

[6Ibid., p. 168, 223.

[7 Fereydoun Hoveyda, The Fall of the Shah. The Inside Story by the Shah's Former Ambassador to the United Nations (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980), p. 148.

[8 Michael M.J. Fischer, Iran. From Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambidge, Mass./London: Harvard University Press, 1980), p. 212.

[9 Afshin Ellian, Leve de monoculturele rechtsstaat, in: NRC Handelsblad, 30 November 2002, p. 7.

[10 Metro, 6 October 2006, p. 1 ("PvdA verliest allochtoon").

[11 NRC Handelsblad, 9 June 2007, p. 37 ("Afvallige moslims").

[12 NRC Handelsblad, 2 June 2007, p. 3 ("Oprichter ex-moslim comité wordt begeleid").

[13 Trouw/De Verdieping, 23 June 2007, p. 10 ("Ehsan Jami: Ik wil geen evolutie, ik wil een evolutie").

[14 Trouw, 8 August 2007, p. 5 ("Het leidt te veel af van zijn goede initiatief").

[15 Emerson Vermaat, Danish Cartoons, Hamas and the religious fascists, in: Militant Islam Monitor, 7 February 2006.

[16 Emerson Vermaat, De Hofstadgroep. Portret van een Radicaal-Islamitisch Netwerk (Soesterberg: Uitgeverij Aspekt, 2005), p. 49.

[17 Janny Groen and Annieke Kranenberg, Strijdsters van Allah. Radicale Moslima's en het Hofstadnetwerk (Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhof/De Volkskrant, 2006), p. 331, 333.

[18www.al-yakeen.com/nieuw/nieuws/nieuws/php?id=882, 23 June 2007 ("PvdA'er schoffeert Islam").

[19 NRC Handelsblad, 7 August 2007, p. 3 ("Jami ontvangt steun per e-mail").

[20 Afshin Ellian, Geef aanvallers ex-moslim Jami de maximum straf, in: Elsevier.nl, 6 August 2007.

[21Netwerk (Dutch TV), 7 August 2007.

[22 Radio One (Netherlands), 7 August 2007, 8:15 a.m.

[23Nederlands Juridisch Dagblad, 7 August 2007 ("Ruud Koole: Daders mishandeling partijgenoot snel opsporen en straffen"); Radio One, 8 August 2007.

[24Forums.marokko.nl./Forums.Thabaat.net.

[25 De Telegraaf, 9 August 2007, p. 3 ("Voorman ex-moslims vogelvrij verklaard"); De Volkskrant, 10 August 2007, p. 3 ("Jami tientallen keren bedreigd met de dood"); Dablad De Pers, 7 August 2007, p. 6 ("Afshin Ellian heeft hele dag op NCTb ingepraat").

[26 De Volkskrant, 10 August 2007, p. 3 ("Geloofsafval kan ook zonder te kwetsen").

[27 Spits, 8 August 2007, p. 5 ("Jami is er geestelijk kapot van").

[28]De Volkskrant, 8 August 2007, p. 11 (Commentaar: Ehsan Jami gaat door").

[29 Dagblad De Pers, 13 August 2007, p. 1 ("Ook bedreigd raadslid Haarlem mist PvdA-steun").

[30Trouw/De Verdieping, 23 June 2007, p. 11 ("Ehsan Jami: Ik wil geen evolutie, ik wil een revolutie").

[31R.P.W. Jennissen and M. Blom, Allochtone en Autochtone Verdachten van Verschillende Delicttypen Nader Bekeken (The Hague: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek/Ministerie van Justitie (WODC), p, 9-13).

[32 De Volkskrant, 7 April 2007, p. 27 ("Interview Ella Vogelaar: De onzekerheid voorbij").

[33 De Volkskrant, 7 July 2007, p. 29 ("Interview Ahmed Aboutaleb: Ik ben geen uithangbord").

[34 Samira Bouchibti, Marokkanen, wijs niet naar een ander, doe zelf wat, in: Trouw/De Verdieping/Podium, 19 May 2007.

[35 Nahed Selim, De Vrouwen van de Profeet. Wat heeft de Koran over de Vrouw te Vertellen? (Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 2003/2004).

[36 Nahed Selim, Slaapwandelend naar de segregatie, in: Trouw/Letter&Geest, 28 April 2007, p. 2, 3.

[37 Coretta Phillips and Ben Bowling, Ethnicities, Racism, Crime, and Criminal Justice, in: The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 439 (Home Office, 2005: Arrest population by ethnic group and notifiable offences 2003/4). The author is currently doing research into African and Caribbean criminal groups in Europe.

[38 Ibid., p. 433. Author's file on black gangs in Britain.

[39Coretta Phillips and Ben Bowling, Racism, Ethniticity, and Criminal Justice, in: The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Third Edition, 2002), p. 603 (Home Office 2000: Male Prison Population by Ethnic Group, 1985-99).

[40Coretta Phillips and Ben Bowling, Ethnicities, Racism, and Criminal Justice, in: The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Fourth Edition, 2007), p. 436, 438, 450, 451.

[41 Ibid., p. 452.

[42P.A.J. Waddington, Black Crime, the "Racist" Police and Fashionable Compassion, in: Digby Anderson (Ed.)., The Kindness that Kills. The Churches' Simplistic Response to Complex Social Issues (London: SPCK, 1984), p. 48.

[43For a thorough and critical analysis of the theology of revolution, see: Oscar Cullmann, Jesus und die Revolutionären Seiner Zeit (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck, 1970), p. 18-30. Cullmann, an authoritative French theologian, shows that Jesus Christ was anything but a resistance fighter, on the contrary, he refused to get involved in the political issues of his day. See also: G. de Ru, De Verleiding der Revolutie (Kampen: Uitgeversmaatschappij J.H. Kok, 1974), p. 51-68 and G. de Ru, Evangelie en Revolutie, in: Kerk en Theologie, October 1970, No. 4, p. 392: "The actions of the antichrist are precisely contrary to the preaching, teaching and suffering of Christ: he transforms theology into politics, transforms a theological thesis into a political one." Dr. G. de Ru was president of the Synod of the Netherlands Reformed Church. Fidel Castro is reported to have said: "Theologians are becoming Communists and Communists are becoming theologians." (José Míguez Bonino, Christians and Marxists, op. cit., p. 15.)

[44 Piet Reckman, "Je kunt het celvorming noemen, Waarom niet?" in: Haagse Post, 25 November 1978, p. 12-14. On the differences between his ideals and those of the Dutch Communist Party, he said: "You should ask the members of the Communist Party. With respect to content, there is, in fact, more in common than there are differences between us."

[45De Volkskrant, 14 September 1989 ("Radicaal Piet Reckman stapt over naar Groen Links: ‘De PvdA is te conformistisch geworden'"). "He is knicknamed the new Lenin."

[46 De Horst 1945-2005: Biografie van een buitenbeentje (www.dehorst.nl/2-historie.html)

[47 Piet Reckman, Naar een Strategie en Methodiek van Sociale Aktie (Baarn: Anthos Boek, 1971).

[48NRC Handelsblad, 20 June 1994 ("Profiel Ella Vogelaar: ‘Ik heb geen grand design, zo ben ik niet").

[49 Martin van den Heuvel, Uit het leven van een Anticommunist. Herinneringen aan Oost-Europa (Bloemendaal: J.H. Gottmer/H.J.W. Becht, 1997), p. 149. Martin van den Heuvel started his career as a Dutch correspondent in Moscow and later became a wellknown expert on Russia and Eastern Europe at the University of Amsterdam and the Clingendael Institute in The Hague.

[50 Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst (Dutch Domestic Security Service or BVD), A Hidden Factor in the Dutch Discussion on Nuclear Weapons, p. 4-23 (The Hague: BVD, February, 1981, confidential report; author's files). There is both a Dutch (Verborgen Factor") and an English version of the report.

[51 BVD, A Hidden Factor, p. 22, 23.

[52Hans Hoekstra (a former high ranking BVD-officer), In Dienst van de BVD (Amsterdam: Boom, 2004), p. 93, 94.

[53 De Volksrant, 7 April 2007, p. 27 ("Zeventien kilometer op de fiets naar Zierikzee").

[54 NRC-Handelsblad, 20 June 1994, p. 2 ("Profiel van Ella Vogelaar: ‘Ik heb geen grand design, zo ben ik niet'").

[55 NRC Handelsblad, 15 March 1988, "Wetenschap en Onderwijs", p. 2 ("Linkse bond in de verdediging").

[56De Volkskrant, 7 April 2007, p. 27 ("De onzekerheid voorbij").

[57NRC Handelsblad, 19 March 1997 ("Ella Vogelaar: Ten onder in abstractie").

[58Algemeen Dagblad, 20 March 1997 ("Ambitie De Waal en twijfel nekken FNV'er Vogelaar"); De Telegraaf, 7 June 1997 ("Ook na geruchtmakend vertrek Vice-Voorzitter Vogelaar kunnen mannen en vrouwen bij FNV samen door één deur").

[59Het Parool, 11 June 1997, p. 21 ("Ook Ella Vogelaar verdient onze zorg").

[60 NRC Handelsblad, 31 May 1997 ("Hollands Dagboek: Ella Vogelaar").

[61 Utrechts Nieuwsblad/Focus, 28 August 2004 ("Van CPN tot machtige zakenvrouw").

[62 NRC.nl, 13 December 2005 ("Hulpgeld Kosovo misbruikt").

[63Elsevier.nl, 7 July 2006 ("Minder dan helft Tsunamigeld besteed aan hulp").

[64 C.G. Jung, Psychological Reflections (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), p. 152.

[65 Hans-Christian Brandenburg, Die Geschichte der HJ (Cologne: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1968), p. 118, 119. "Mit dieser ‘Unsterblichen Gefolgschaft der HJ' wurde ein massloser Totenkult getrieben, der seinerseits nur dazu dienen sollte, bei der HJ das Märtyrergefühl und den Radikalismus, die Einsatz- und Totenbereitschaft zu steigern."

[66Deutschland-Berichte der Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands 1934-1940, Vierter Jahrgang 1937 (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Petra Nettelbeck, 1982), p. 1570.

[67Ibid. p. 1575.

[68De Telegraaf, 25 October 2004 ("Overlast Diamantbuurt niet uitzonderlijk"); Nova TV, 25 October 2005; Openbare Les "Jongeren en Overlast." Case Diamantbuurt. Verslag Bijeenkomst, 29 September 2005 (Cahier 22); De Volkskrant 24 September 2004, p. 15 ("Ik Geloof dat ik gek word"); De Volkskrant, 8 October 2005, p. 25 ("Jongens van smaragd"); Het Parool, 22 October 2004, p. 3 ("En toen kwamen de bakstenen").

[69De Volkskrant, 18 January 2006, p. 3 ("Marokkaanse diamant-jeugd jaagt opnieuw bewoners weg").

[70 Trouw, 18 January 2007, p. 1 ("Cohen vreest rellen in hoofdstad").

[71See in particular: Lukasz Hirszowicz, The Third Reich and the Arab East (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966).

[72 Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Persvrijheidlezing 2005 (Amsterdam: Het Persmuseum, 2005), p. 15.

[73 William McGuire and R.F.C. Hull (Eds.), C.G. Jung Speaking. Interviews and Encourters (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), p. 124, 125.

[74 Rafael Patai, The Arab Mind (New York: Hatherley Press, 2002), p. 165, 170. In Chapter 10 ("Extremes and emotions, fantasy and reality") one finds many examples of the Arab tendency toward extremism.

[75 V.S. Naipaul, Beyond Belief. Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples (London: Abacus/Time Warner Books, 2002, first published in 1998), p. 1, 143-259 ("Iran: The Justice of Ali"), 263-349 ("Pakistan: Dropping off the Map").

[76Geert Wilders, Genoeg is genoeg: verbied de Koran in: De Volkskrant, 8 August 2007, p. 11.

[77Depers.nl, 8 August 2007 ("Aangifte tegen Wilders voor aanzetten tot haat"); ANP, 8 August 2007 ("Vogelaar noemt uitspraken Wilders schadelijk").

[78 Claus-Ekkehard Bärsch, Die Politische Religion des Nationalsozialismus. Die Religiöse Dimension der NS-Ideologie in den Schriften von Dietrich Eckart, Joseph Goebbels, Alfred Rosenberg und Adolf Hitler (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1998). The German Nazi greeting "Heil Hitler," for example, was made compulsary for party members, but it clearly had religious undertones, see p. 136-139. See also: Friedrich Heer, Der Glaube des Adolf Hitler. Anatomie einer Politischen Religiosität (Munich: Bechtle Verlag, 1968), p. 21, 247 ("Almighty God"), 250, 317, 319, 323 ("Our people created by God"), 405, 406 (Catholic youth) p. 420 ("Satanic Jews"), 445 ("Our prayer to the Lord God").

[79 See for example: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (London: Radius Book/Hutchinson, 1972), p. 369.

[80 Winston S. Churchill, Never Give In! The Best of Winston's Churchill's Speeches (London: Pimlico/Random House, 2003), p.185.









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