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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Geert Wilders defies Islamist threats - Forms new political movement in Holland

Geert Wilders defies Islamist threats - Forms new political movement in Holland

Group Wilders sets out to reform Dutch politics - leader meets with American neo cons
January 16, 2005

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20041201-014430-6137r.htm

At last, a politician with the courage to speak the truth openly. And for it, he may be killed. From UPI, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

The Hague, Netherlands, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Geert Wilders is a marked man. Ever since the slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh on Nov. 2, the controversial anti-Islam politician has been living in fear for his life. He has had 20 to 30 death threats -- including one offering 72 virgins in paradise to any Muslim who beheads him -- and after the brutal murder of Van Gogh, Dutch police are taking no chances. Wilders is driven to a different safe house every night in an armored car, is permanently protected by a posse of bodyguards and only sees his wife two or three times a week. "Politically it's quite an interesting time, but personally it's terrible," he tells United Press International in a rare interview in the Dutch House of Representatives in The Hague. "Every morning I wake up, wonder where I am and what's going to happen to me. It's like the worst B-movie ever."

Wilders, a 41-year-old former speechwriter with a boyish face and a shock of peroxide-bleached hair, says he is afraid for himself and his family, but refuses to be intimidated by the mountain of death threats. "I will never make any restraints on my freedom of speech. On the contrary, I will be even stronger and tougher saying the things I have to say because if we choose to moderate our voice or stop talking about these subjects, the people who use violence, bullets and knives to get their way will win."

When it comes to Islam and how to deal with the Netherlands' one million Muslims - more than 5 percent of the population -- Wilders certainly pulls no punches. "I have a big problem with Islam but not with Muslims," says the populist politician, who has worked and traveled widely in the Middle East. "I believe that democracy and Islam are totally incompatible and will always be incompatible. There is not one country in the Middle East which is a democracy or is governed by the rule of law."

Like Pim Fortuyn, the openly gay former columnist who rocked Holland's cozy political establishment with his anti-immigration rhetoric before he was gunned down in May 2002, Wilders believes Islam is a "backward religion" that has not gone through the same reformation as Christianity or Judaism and makes no separation between divine and earthly powers. "The political culture of Islam is retarded, and we should keep it as far away from us as possible. It is not our culture and religion, so it should not become dominant in the Netherlands or Europe."

With studies predicting that if present trends continue Muslims will become the majority in the Netherlands' four largest cities by 2020, Wilders says the only way to prevent the native Dutch from becoming a minority in their own land is to halt all immigration from non-Western countries for five years. "The day there are more Muslims than Christians in the Netherlands, I will leave this country whether I am a parliamentarian or not," he said. "I wouldn't feel it was my country any more."

Wilders says he has no problem with the majority of Muslims who are "moderate and have nothing to do with terrorism." But he believes the Dutch government should follow the example of Britain, France and Germany and be "as tough as possible with the growing minority of radical Muslims," which he estimates makes up 10 percent of the Muslim population.

Describing radical Islam as "fascistic" for preaching that "all non-believers have to be eliminated," the outspoken politician says: "I am sure we will lose our country -- if we have not lost it already -- if we don't show who's in charge in the Netherlands, what are the boundaries of our law and what happens when people step over the mark."

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MIM: Homepage of Group Wilders website

Home

Welkom op de website van de Groep Wilders!

Met deze website wil ik met u in contact komen en blijven. U vindt hier mijn standpunten, speeches in de Kamer, gestelde Kamervragen, ingediende moties en amendementen, interviews in kranten en week- en maandbladen, informatie over publieke optredens en ander nieuws over de nieuwe politieke beweging. Ook zal ik regelmatig prikkelende stellingen op deze site neerzetten waar u op kan reageren. Hoe interactiever hoe beter. Ik hoop ook dat u me blijft emailen met uw ideeën en commentaar.

Het is duidelijk dat politiek Den Haag het contact met de kiezer heeft verloren. De gevestigde politieke partijen zijn meer bezig met hun eigen machtspositie dan met het luisteren naar de mening van de mensen in het land. De grote problemen die Nederland kent als het gaat om immigratie en integratie, veiligheid en terrorisme, gezondheidszorg en sociale zekerheid worden door dit kabinet onvoldoende onderkend. Het vertrouwen van de burger in deze regering is dan ook op een historisch dieptepunt beland. Toch gaat de gevestigde orde op dezelfde wijze door, is horende doof en ziende blind voor de grote maatschappelijke kritiek op het kabinetsbeleid, met als gevolg steeds meer teleurstelling en ongenoegen bij de mensen. De Groep Wilders wil hier in de Tweede Kamer met een nieuwe politieke beweging een alternatief voor proberen te bieden

In de tussentijd zal ik uiteraard – in de Tweede Kamer en in het land - blijven zeggen wat ik vind over uiteenlopende onderwerpen. Daar gaat het mij om: heldere meningen, gedegen oplossingen en zeker niet bang zijn voor discussie.

Mocht u interesse hebben in de Groep Wilders en de nieuwe politieke beweging dan kunt u op deze site de laatste ontwikkelingen volgen. Ook ben ik zeer benieuwd naar uw mening over actuele zaken. U kunt mij via onderstaand link op de hoogte houden en mij in kennis stellen van uw ideeën en opmerkingen. Nederland moet worden teruggegeven aan de burger! Met uw steun ga ik ervoor knokken dit voor mekaar te krijgen!

Van harte bedankt voor uw steun.
Vriendelijke groeten,

Geert Wilders

http://www.geertwilders.nl/

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Translation of homepage for Group Wilders

by director of MIM

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Bank account number 67.04.72.344

Under the name of Group Wilders in The Hague

Welcome to the website of Group Wilders (The Wilders Group)

With this website I want get into contact you and remain in contact with you. You will find my standpoints here, my speeches in the House, questions which I have posed in the House, and motions and proposed amendments, interviews in newspapers and weekly and monthly magazines, information about public appearances, and other news about the new political movement. I will also place thought provoking opinions on this site which you can react to. The more interactive the better.

I hope that you will continue to email me with your ideas and commentary. It is clear that politics (and politicians) in The Hague has lost contact with the electorate. The established political parties are more occupied with their positions of power then with listening to the opinions of people in this country. The biggest problems which are facing Holland when it comes to immigration and integration, security and terrorism, healthcare and social security ,are being ignored by this Cabinet. The citizen's trust in this government has reached a historic low point. Yet the established order is continuing in the same way and has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the criticism from the society toward the Cabinet's policies, and as a result there is increasingly more dissapointment and dissatisfaction among the people.

The Group Wilders, would like to offer a new political movement here in the Lower House and try to provide an alternative. In will in the meantime of course in the Lower House and in this country, continue to say what I think about diverse subjects. My main concern is: clear positions, sound solutions, and certainly not to be afraid of discussion. If you are interested in the Group Wilders and the new political movement then you will be able to follow the latest developments on this website. I am also very curious regarding your views about the latest issues.

Via the link below you will be able to keep me informed and let me know about your ideas and comments. Holland has to be returned to it's citizens! With your support I am going to fight to make this happen!

With heartfelt thanks for your support,

Friendly Greetings,

Geert Wilders

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Wilders learns about conservative thought in the US

Wilders : "I can't just run on the platform of Islam" says Geert Wilders

That is why he is taking a 'study' trip to American

By our correspondent Marc Chavannes

Translated by Beila Rabinowitz director MIM

Washington.15 January

"Ah, this is freedom", said Geert Wilders . We are sitting in front of the window of a coffeeshop in the capital with a friendly atmosphere. In Holland this is not possible. The bodyguards approve but stay closeby. The leader of The Group Wilders is also enthusiastic because he has found so many like minded people.: The entire Reagan agenda is well suited to me! Lowering of taxes, ‘a smaller government' both chances to widen his appeal. I can't just run on the platform of Islam".

After a week in Israel.the isolated VVD House member traveled for a week of terrorism studies to New, Phildelphia, and Washington. He had a dizzying round of talks with the White House, think tanks, and ‘conservative clubs' in the house of Representatives and with the American press . Everytime he explains his views on Turkey "good neighbor but not a member of the family", a halt to immigration for non Westerners, and the over beaureucratic EU and UN is Wilders in his own words: ‘scolded for being too moderate". ‘.He enjoys that for a change. In the New York Sun an the New Yorker his audience were under the impression that he was less wild then the Dutch writer Ian Buruma had portrayed him in the New Yorker, but not everyone was convinced that he would be able to do what he plans.*

"My Turkey argument is well grounded, I have simply said what I think. I don't get a lot of flak for that here , although I know that they think otherwise about it "

Be that as it may , it does Wilders good to get a taste of the dynamic which he is missing "in our pampered and jaded society".

He says this while sipping the smallest available cup of coffee which is labelled as ‘tall'here .On Wednsday he will be sitting in a coordination meeting for the ‘Americans for Tax Reform'. The tax lowering lobby club of Grover Norquist .*

Wilders admired the way in which Norquist had orchestrated himself as a spider in the web of the conservative revolution. "We need to have something like this."

Even the White House and the Department of State are accountable to him" Wilders gratefully noted how Norquist had clarified and connected his own themes between his own themes: Immigration means a bigger need for social services which leads to more Democrats". The Dutch equivalent of the left wing . He concluded "In Holland we don't have a party which can lower taxes." "This offers possibilities". The House member asked Norquist how to integrate the lowering of taxes into the budget. With a broad sweep of his arm Norquist named the resulting increased economic growth as a solution.,but Wilders is convinced that if you are striving towards a smaller central government and want to collect less taxes a vote is called for.

"American budget deficits are not the solution." "I can justify it but it could cost votes" .It has to be well packaged".

We go through the list of people whom Wilders met with one more time.Speaking engagements organised by Commentary magazine. The Heritage Foundation, The American Enterprise Institute and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Meetings with the most prominent neo conservatives Richard Perle, the Middle East experts Daniel Pipes and Hillel Fraidkin of the Libertarian Party, interviews with the New York Observer, Sixty Minutes, Frontline (PBS) , The New Republic, The Financial Times, The Washington Times, (FOX news) tonight in primetime. It is a program which would make the Deputy minister jealous , even if the intellectual element would have been more balanced. And he stayed at the residence of the Dutch ambassador. But that was for security reasons..

"I am not Pim Fortuyn", is the closing statement of his American message. But by following in his footsteps he is on his way to becoming the most famous Dutchman in America.

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MIM: Excerpts from Ian Buruma's article 'Final Cut'

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/356

Geert Wilders, the current promoter of anti-immigrant populism, has none of Fortuyn's flamboyant appeal, although his extraordinary hairdo, a kind of lacquered blond bouffant, draped around a pink baby face, could be seen as a brave attempt at it. A former deputy and speechwriter for Bolkestein, he left the Liberal Party in September, 2004, because he felt it was pulling too much toward the center, while he wanted to go further to the right. Wilders has become an important figure on the post-van Gogh scene, though his efforts to organize a new party are somewhat hampered by the fact that he needs twenty-four-hour protection and has to stay in safe houses.

I saw him in his well-guarded office at Parliament, in The Hague. Wilders is a man obsessed with one idea: Holland's failure to confront the Islamist threat. Nervously shuffling the few items on his desk, he spoke fast, as if there were no more time to lose: "It's no coincidence that the first ritual slaughter happened here. We just let everybody in. There is no sense of urgency. The French intelligence people can't believe how sloppy we are." He reeled off names of people and organizations that, he said, have been operating in the Netherlands with impunity. "I'm furious that the Dutch government is incapable of taking hard measures. That would be better for the moderate Muslims, too. We must crack down. In this country, politicians have always tried to pacify minorities by mollycoddling them. All that holding of hands. It makes me sick."

But cracking down may not be so easy. Wilders's idea that only non-Western foreigners should be stopped from coming to the Netherlands is morally hard to condone, and arresting people on the mere suspicion of what they might do is not exactly in accordance with European human-rights treaties. Wilders insists that he is not a racist, or anti-Islam, even though he feels "in the depths of my heart that Islam is not compatible with democracy." But he is engaged in the politics of fear, and fear is not a recipe for democratic moderation. "Van Gogh is only the beginning," he said, just before we parted, "and you ain't seen nothing yet."

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*See article detailing Grover Norquist and the Americans for Tax Reform's Islamist connections :" A Troubling Influence" by Frank Gaffney http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=11209&p=1

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MIM:Original article

http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/artikel/1105684162687.html

Wilders snuift in VS conservatieve thema's op

'Ik kan niet alleen islam doen', zegt Kamerlid Geert Wilders. Daarom is hij op studiereis in de VS.

WASHINGTON, 15 JAN. ,,Ah, dit is vrijheid", zegt Geert Wilders. We zitten gewoon voor het raam van een koffiewinkel in de hoofdstad van een bevriende mogendheid. In Nederland kan dat niet. De heren van de lijfwacht vinden het goed, maar blijven vlakbij. De leider van de Groep Wilders is ook opgetogen omdat hij geestverwanten heeft gevonden: ,,Die hele Reagan-agenda bevalt me wel!" Belastingverlaging en 'een kleinere overheid' bieden kansen om zijn aantrekkingskracht te verbreden. ,,Ik kan niet alleen islam doen."

Na een week in Israël, is het van de VVD afgescheiden Kamerlid doorgereisd voor een week terrorisme- en immigratie-studie in New York, Philadelphia en Washington. Hij heeft een duizelingwekkende serie gesprekken gevoerd bij het Witte Huis, denktanks en 'conservatieve clubs', in het Huis van Afgevaardigden en met de Amerikaanse pers. Elke keer als hij zijn verhaal houdt over Turkije (,,goede buur, maar geen lid van de familie"), een immigratiestop voor niet-westerlingen en de verbureaucratiseerde EU en VN wordt Wilders naar eigen zeggen voor 'gematigd' uitgescholden. Dat bevalt hem wel voor de variatie. Volgens verslagen in The New York Sun en The New York Observer waren zijn toehoorders onder de indruk, hij was minder wild dan de Brits-Nederlandse schrijver Ian Buruma hem kort geleden in The New Yorker had afgeschilderd, maar men was niet steeds overtuigd dat alles wat hij wilde ook kon.

,,Mijn Turkije-verhaal zit goed in elkaar. Ik heb het gewoon verteld zoals ik het denk. Daar kreeg ik weinig weerwerk op, al weet ik dat ze er hier anders over denken." Het doet Wilders hoe dan ook goed iets te proeven van de dynamiek die hij mist ,,in onze eigen gepamperde, vadsige samenleving", vertelt hij bij de kleinst verkrijgbare beker koffie, die hier 'tall' heet.

Woensdag maakte hij de befaamde wekelijkse coördinatiebijeenkomst mee van 'Americans for Tax Reform', de lobbyclub van Grover Norquist die ijvert voor belastingverlaging. Wilders heeft met bewondering gezien hoe Norquist als een spin in het web de conservatieve revolutie orkestreert. ,,Zoiets zouden wij ook moeten hebben. Zelfs het Witte Huis en het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken leggen bij hem verantwoording af." Wilders heeft dankbaar genoteerd hoe Norquist hem het verband tussen zijn eigen thema's heeft verduidelijkt: ,,Immigratie betekent een groter beroep op sociale zekerheid, wat leidt tot meer Democraten" - links in de Nederlandse verhoudingen. Hij concludeert: ,,We hebben in Nederland geen belastingverlagingspartij. Dat biedt mogelijkheden." Het Kamerlid heeft Norquist wel gevraagd hoe je sterk verlaagde belastingen in de begroting opvangt. Norquist noemde met een ruim gebaar de resulterende vergrote economische groei als oplossing, maar Wilders is ervan doordrongen dat als je een kleinere overheid nastreeft en minder belasting wilt innen, kiezen geboden is. ,,Amerikaanse begrotingstekorten zijn geen oplossing. Ik heb er wel een verhaal bij, maar het kan in Nederland electoraal pijn doen. Je moet het goed inpakken."

We lopen de lijst ontmoetingen nog een keer door. Spreekbeurten georganiseerd door het blad Commentary, The Heritage Foundation, The American Enterprise Institute en het Foreign Policy Research Institute, gesprekken met de vooraanstaand neoconservatief Richard Perle, de Midden-Oosten-kenners Daniel Pipes en Hillel Fradkin en de Libertarian Party, interviews met The New York Observer, Sixty Minutes van CBS, Frontline (PBS), The New Republic, The Financial Times, The Washington Times, Fox News (vanavond in prime time). Het is een programma waar een Nederlandse minister-president op bezoek in de VS jaloers op zou zijn, al zou zijn staf het intellectueel misschien iets uitgebalanceerder samenstellen. En hij mocht logeren in dezelfde residentie van de Nederlandse ambassadeur. Maar dat was om veiligheidsredenen.

,,Ik ben Pim Fortuyn niet", is een sleutelzin uit zijn Amerikaanse boodschap. Maar in diens voetsporen is Geert Wilders bezig de bekendste Nederlander in Amerika te worden.

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