Geert Wilders

Pictures Left to right, Ehsan Jami, Geert Wilders, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

By Jim Fryar.

“According to Geert Wilders, one can roam the streets of Amsterdam stoned, belly full of space cakes, window-shopping hookers, en route to a monkey sex show and still be a model citizen.” Corrine Marshall. Huffington Post.

Well maybe not a model citizen, but that part may be the correspondents words not those of the subject, the article was after all rather disapproving. Apart from that the guy sounds quite reasonable, I don’t want to do any of those things but I don’t see any reason to prevent anyone who wishes to do so from doing it. After all it is none of my business.

I began researching this post on Geert Wilders, prominent Dutch Politician and leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV). As I did it I found that while the old stuff is of interest, most of the later material consists of anti-Islamic rhetoric, which tends to point to the possibility of the man being just another extreme right-winger.

He appears to be committed to freedom of the individual. His political views (and so the ones of the PVV as well) are very similar to those of murdered populist politician, Pim Fortuyn and his List Pim Fortuyn. There are strong resemblances, certainly on socio-economic issues, to libertarianism.

Wilders wants to lower taxes, decrease most welfare, raise highway speed limits and cut state regulations by making it mandatory to scrap two legal rules for every new one to be instated.

Clearly he has adopted some of the persona of Pim Fortuyn but appears to fiscally conservative in addition to having a commitment to individual freedom. Like Pim Fortuyn, he has serious issues with Islam.

The reason for this seems to lie in growing radicalism among the Islamic community resulting in the perception that there is a quiet Islamic take-over of Holland by Islamic immigrants, aided and abetted by political correctness, with it’s ‘see no evil, hear no evil, even when it’s obvious’, ideals.

People generally have no objection to some inflow of immigrants, even those who are very different to themselves. This changes dramatically however if those immigrants do not seem to wish to fit in and particularly if they advocate changing the traditions and culture of the host country to suit their own.

Add violence to the mix and prevent people speaking out with racial vilification laws as well as passive censorship by the press, and you have the formulae for seething resentment. You then have to be asking for trouble to have the state actively encouraging this.

It is obvious that the government is engaging in social engineering against the wishes of the people.

The integration minister Vogelaar caused a stir when she said the Netherlands should in the future be home to a "Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition.” A Dutch-Moroccan group praised her for her "courage," but other politicians objected, and Wilders said the minister should resign. In a recent opinion survey, 56 percent of Dutch adult respondents rejected Vogelaar's remark.

The Dutch are probably one of the most socially tolerant people in the world, closely followed by relatively liberal social values in much of Western Europe. Europe has generally welcomed migrants and refugees as part of that tolerance, however serious underlying problems have arisen through radical Islamic refusing to tolerate the culture of the host countries.

Theo van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam on Tuesday, November 2. The 47-year-old film director and publicist was shot and stabbed several times by his assassin on the streets of the Dutch capital. Danish imam Ahmed Abu Laban, Palestinian by birth, has explained how 'Theo van Gogh provoked all Muslims by showing a naked woman.’

At this point I have to ask ‘what the hell is wrong with images of naked ladies?’ If the women themselves have no problems with those images being shown, then it is no one else’s business. If somebody objects then they can stay away and deny the producer the financial benefit of their custom, of even criticize it or urge people not to attend, but to use violence is beyond the pail.

Wilders himself has been subjected to numerous death threats in the past. Ayaan Hirsi Ali another politician and an associate of Theo Van Gough has now left the Netherlands and lives in the US has also been threatened and went into hiding at the same time as Wilders, and the leader of a group of people who have left Islam, Ehsan Jami was recently beaten up by radicals.

It is natural that citizens of any country or region to resent outsiders coming in and holding them in sneering contempt, but when the new group feel that they have the right to abuse, assault, and even kill them out of the bigotry of their own culture, then you have a recipe for disaster and open warfare.

I am reminded here of the words of Groucho Marx; “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."

The problem I have with Geert Wilders is that he appears to be seeking the populist option in seeking to create a division between the Dutch people and all Islamic people or may be seeing things this way, when really it is a matter of crime, not a race issue. It appears that a majority of Islamic immigrants are happy to live in harmony with the rest of the people, and the activities of Wilders is only likely to exacerbate the problems caused by a minority.

The solution in my opinion would be to enforce the law on any one who commits any crime and if they are immigrants, boot them back to whatever country they came from. If they are then persecuted in their own countries, then it is not the problem of the former host; they had their chance and abused the privilege.

The rest should then get the message.