'Islam is taking over Europe'
Pastor Dale Morgan
'Islam is taking over Europe'*
By Bruno Waterfield in The Hague
Last Updated: 2:29am GMT 01/03/2007
An anti-immigrant politician is making a meteoric rise with his call on
the Dutch - once one of the most tolerant nations in the world - to stop
Islam taking over Europe.
Geert Wilders, the 43-year-old leader of the Freedom Party, is convinced
that governments are being forced to accommodate a 'tsunami of
Islamisation' that is fundamentally incompatible with European social
values.
"Islam itself is the problem. Islam is a violent religion," he told The
Daily Telegraph. "The Prophet Mohammed was a violent man. The Koran is
mostly a violent book. We should invest in Muslim people but they have
to first get rid of half the Koran and half of their beliefs," he said.
The Freedom Party has jumped from six to 10 per cent in opinion polls
since November. His passionate campaign for a ban on the Islamic veil,
or burqa, in public places is gaining such momentum that the country's
new coalition government could be forced to introduce the ban it does
not support.
On the burqa, Mr Wilders is adamant: "It is a medieval token of a
barbaric time, of how not to treat women, even if they want to wear it
themselves," he argues.
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Allowing Muslims to wear the burqa in the Netherlands, or to have
segregated swimming sessions so as not to offend religious
sensitivities, amounts to "religious apartheid" he says.
The new government coalition of mainstream centre right and left
political parties had planned to ditch a decision by the previous
government to ban the burqa in the Netherlands which now has a
population of one million Muslims, six per cent of the total population.
But, Mr Wilders crows, weekend opinion polls show 66 per cent of Dutch
citizens support a ban.
The minority opposition leader who has won two previous votes for a ban
on the burqa is convinced that support will be there for new legislation
he will table in the spring as the Dutch become increasingly concerned
over Muslim separatism.
Wilders is convinced there is growing support for his views across
Europe but its political leaders, particularly in Britain, are too
obsessed with being politically correct.
"There is almost no country more politically correct than the UK. Look
at the terrible things that happened in London after Madrid, you have
more reason than most to make this debate transparent and public," he said.
Mr Wilders split from the Dutch liberals in September 2004 over their
support for EU membership for Turkey.
Two months later he was living in fear after police arrested suspected
terrorists, armed with grenades, accused of planning to kill him. The
Dutch politician says he and his wife have received more than 600 death
threats.
Mr Wilders, who is always surrounded by plain clothes police guards,
said: "I lost my freedom and privacy because of my opposition to Islam."