You got to hand it too the man, he does keep us busy. Geert Wilders, the self proclaimed dutch defender for freedom (of speech) is all that stands between dutch society and Muslim totalitarianism, or so he will have us believe. A Tsunami of Islam is pounding against Hollands sea and land borders, eagerly plotting to turn the lowlands in to a sharia based Caliphate. Modesty most be one of the many virtues of mr. Wilders because if you listen carefully to the man, he is not only battling Islamic censorship in the public debate, he will redeem Holland from all Islamic imposed influences. It's not only our freedom of speech he's defending, it is our very way of life he aims to protect and preserve. To do so, Muslims most be banned from Holland, even Europe. The Holy Quran should be forbidden and Islam as a religion should be abolished. And Mr. Wilders is just the man to do it, Holland's very on 21ste century crusader.
The reason why this blog is in english is simpel, Mr. Wilders has taken his plea for freedom across the border, appearing on Al Jazeera, attending numerous speeches in the U.S. and elsewhere to seek assistance in his epic battle to relief the Dutch from the forces of Islamic evildoers. In the U.S. and Israel he has captured an enthusiastic financial audience to sponsor his quest for liberty. The magnitude of this foreign financial aid to his movement remains undisclosed. The identity of his benefactors, corporate or persona, are also to remain anonymous for the public by order of mr. Wilders himself. But that's okay, Mr. Wilders claims to pioneer the freedom of speech, not the transparency of government and leadership. Although he does criticize existing leadership for closed door politics and back room antics...
We should gladly forgive Mr. Wilders this omission if he delivers us from the evil that is Islam and the perils it brings to our existence according to him.
So where did it go so terrible wrong in Holland?
Compartmentalization (verzuiling) gave the complete society a sense of identity. Based on various Christian denominations and political color, dutch society was living apart together. Protestants, Roman Catholics and socialists had their own unions, churches, political parties shops and even personnel. The tension between these groups was balanced by thin collaborations of the parties governing them. In the 1950's through out the 1960's the compartmentalization eroded under pressure of the growing individualism that came with modern day capitalism and wealth. A little later the first wave of immigration laborers from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco and Turkey came to participate in unpopular labor otherwise unfulfilled by the Dutch. In the aftermath of the decompartmentalization, the sense of group identity among the Dutch was blurred by the growth of luxury and the increasing standard of life. By the late 1970's early 1980's a society had matured in which the Dutch could pursue individual materialistic wealth regardless of religious or political conviction. Holland had a renowned social security system and education was accessible and available for every denomination.
Parents that grew up in the compartmentalization could place their children on protestant, catholic or public schools. Immigrant children from Muslim parents could also attend Islamic primary schools if they chose so, dutch law granted acces to education for any religious conviction as well as public education. The majority of Muslim immigrants however, placed their children on public schools.
throughout the eighties en nineties, economic recession and progression succeeded each other. The Immigrant labor forces made good money in comparison to what they could have made in their home country, but were uneducated and ill prepared for the changes in Holland's society. Education and knowledge played an increasingly larger role in the labor market. Labor intensive employment would be outsourced. The position of Moroccan and Turkish youth was, like most ethnic minorities, more hopeless education wise then those of native origin. Integration and language problems of the first generation labor immigrants became more tangible. At the same time the renowned system of social security in Holland took beating after beating, in the form of budget cuts during recessions. The native Dutch now found themselves battling for employment with former immigrants. Where the social service used to be a way to stay out of poverty, it now became a guarantee to remain in poverty. (Granted this poverty by Dutch standards does not in anyway resemble poverty know elsewhere in the world.) Immigrants had been housed accordingly to their capacity to generate income, creating Moroccan and Turkish enclaves in low cost areas concentrated predominantly around Hollands larger cities. In the early nineties xenophobia got a new impulse when Holland chose an increscently right approach on asylum seekers. In politics and the media asylum seekers were portrayed as economic refugees, seeking our country in great numbers. At the same time ignoring the fact that most refugees did not get a final permit of admittance, got denied a legal stay all together, or only had a temporary visa. The image arose that Holland was full, saturated with immigrants. Refugees that did get a permit, mostly went to the larger cities in the west as well. Because of the Dutch governments unwillingness to infest in spreading minorities amongst the ethnic majority. Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and other cities now had an ethnic over representation. Labor immigrants, refugees and minorities from our colonial past sometimes outnumbered the dutch in certain areas. As aside effect of these concentrations, schools would become predominantly colored or white, depending on their location and educational level. Without fully realizing it, dutch society had a new form of compartmentalization. Socialists, Liberals, Christians and foreigners of which a part were Muslim. And although Muslims paid and built their own mosques and only a small part of them went to Islamic schools, there is no political representation and they are strongly divided amongst themselves. From the 16 million inhabitants, a merely 800.000 are estimated to be Muslim, Soeni or Shi'a, secular or orthodox.
On the 6th of may 2002 Pim Fortuyn, an up and coming populist, was shot dead by fanatic environmentalist. Mr. Fortuyn gathered a lot of support in a small space of time, criticizing the existing political parties. With no actual solutions and a lot of unconstitutional proposals from his side, the political elite had no proper answer to this new form of populism. Mr. Fortuyn had already sharpened the edges of the immigration debate, blaming Islam for obstructing integration into dutch society. In the wake of his spirit, the dutch lost their composure. The political establishment, that had shifted more and more to the right in the last few years, was blamed for his death. They had called Mr. Fortuyn a menace (which he was) for dutch credibility. Dutch socialists had been labeled as 'the left Church' by Mr. Fortuyn and their verbal defence to this now somehow made them an accomplish in this death. That Fortuyn was murdered by a deranged woodward, didn't stop the nation to plunge into indignant grief. On the 15th of may 2002 Pim Fortuyn was elected, post mortum, with 26 out of the 150 seats in dutch parliament.
2 years later, on the second of November 2004 Theo van Gogh was murdered. The dutch filmmaker and columnist was murdered by an Islamic extremist. Now the dutch really lost their minds. The public grief and debate that spiraled from his murder, was poorly handled by the established dutch politicians. But new, right winged politicians quickly rose too the occasion. One of them, was Mr. Wilders.
Mr. Wilders has his family roots in colonial Indonesia, where his grandfather married a woman from a dutch Indonesian family with a jewish background. Before Holland had to cease her occupation of the Archipelago, under U.S. pressure, his grandfather was dismissed from military service. Broke and disillusioned he retreaded back to Holland. Without luxury and labeled as outsiders, they led a bitter existence. Indonesia was now an Islamic republic and the Holland they had served did not meet expectations. Perhaps this fueled his anti Islamic sentiment, or his drive for a Dutch identity, as is not uncommon in such families.
After his high school period, the adolescent Wilders went to a kibbutz for 2 years. He has returned to Israel many times since. He started his political career for the VVD (Folk party for Freedom and Democracy) as a speech writer for Frits Bolkenstein a prominent member at the far right of this party. A dispute within the VVD, in which mr Wilders found the party wasn't harsh enough towards the possibilities of Turkeys future EUmembership, led him to leave the party. Knowing what awesome support Fortuyn rallied up with strong rhetorics, he started his own party.
With his Aryan blond dye he gathered up a posse that could find a creative way to blame Islam for virtually everything. Learning from the trial and errors of Fortuyn, he stayed away from the public debate. Until today only monologue, not dialog, have spawned from the mouth of a man who claims to advocate the freedom of speech. To ensure a broad electorate Mr. Wilders said farewell to all the political protocols of the established parties and attacked them with criticism on every point. The media loved it. Every where Geert Wilders turned up, every discourteous remark and every statement he made got air time in all media. Every criticism on his behalf by media or politics was dismissed as an attempt of character assassination and demonization of his person. This was exactly the rod that had cost politicians a great deal of votes after the Fortuyn murder, causing caution and apologies from his opponents. The Freedom Party (PVV) quickly started to oppose her own name.
the holy Quran should be forbidden, mosques should be forbidden, Nikab, sex segregated swimming, halal slaughter.., forbidden. Everything wrong in the world had Islamic roots, traffic jams, Chernobyl, criminality... just name it. These claims were supported by exaggerating Dutch identity, we dutch suddenly had a Christian Jewish based society, endangered by Islam. Although implausible other politicians and the media hardly protested this. Historically our churches are turning gray and empty, and nowhere else had the Germans been more accommodated in their raids for Jews (well accept maybe for Italy and Austria). Since the early days of Protestantism, antisemitism had been part of Dutch culture. This didn't stop until after the WWII. To confuse his electorate even more and sell his message wider, he claimed to have nothing against Muslims, only against Islam. Apparently a great deal of voters are able to follow this logic. But if I try to explain to a Jew that I am not antisemitic, I just want to eradicate Judaism, I am punishable by law...
This is exactly why Mr Wilders was sued for incitement of hatred and discrimination. On numerous occasions, in interviews, press releases and articles, Mr Wilders has spoken his abominations outside the parliament walls. Under dutch law, he can not be sued for comments inside congress. So we all ready have absolute freedom of speech. Mr Wilders has sued several organisations, rappers and persons for incitement of hate against him. He has commented on legal rulings and the position of judges in his criticism on (Islamic) foreigners and cases where he felt wronged. But on January the 20th he stated his trail was a political one... Where he would scream for more severe punishment from our legal system, he now compared the courthouse to North Korea and the Gulag.
Knowing he can only gain popularity from this trail, Mr Wilders gained financial support in the U.S. Apart from the fact that these funders of hate are running a morally abject show, they might get more then they bargained for. Outside the courtroom in Amsterdam, a large international crowd of Wilders followers had gathered. Amongst them a great deal of known neo Nazis, infamous for there hatred of everything none Caucasian, including Jews. How Mr. Wilders and his financial backers can integrate this with their believes? Perhaps you have to be a little schizofrenic to be a megalomaniac. They say Hitler was...
The sad thing is that Wilders can only win, no matter what the out come of this trail. As a martyr for freedom of speech or as wrongfully persecuted politician... Forza Italia,
Front National, none of them have grown so easily as Wilders and his PVV. Not something to be proud of as Dutchmen.
As a socialworker, I am engaged with the bottom of dutch society. And I can surely see a difference in every day society all ready. Moderate Muslims are cornered and the Dutch seem to find problems with Islam that never had been there before. Mr. Wilders started by claiming he was a democrat in every pore of his body, then he merely claimed to defend the freedom of speech. Now he calls himself a freedom fighter. I just hope history will not have to call him the Hitler of the 21ste century.
sources:
http://www.legal-project.org/blog/2010/01/liberty-on-trial-in-dutch-court
http://www.jihadwatch.org/
http://www.meforum.org/
http://www.danielpipes.org/
http://www.pvv.nl/
www. wikipedia.nl
