Geert Wilders is a man on a mission. One who sees the influence of the radical Islamic hordes coming from the south and this nationalist, this Dutch patriot, this man who puts his country above multiculturalism has decided to take a stand. In a time when third world nationalism is admired by many progressives, western nationalism is condemned in the same breath. Geert is a proud Dutch nationalist who would put sensible immigration laws into effect and deport Muslim criminals back to their native country. There is noting radical about these positions and they are gaining momentum in the Netherlands.Geert is leading the charge against Muslim intrusions in his country and sees the approaching dangers from a people who will not assimilate into his peaceful nation. We have no such leader in this country. I see no leader here of similar statue, and sadly none on the horizon. Instead our leaders are constantly making excuses for the violent actions of those who follow Islam, saying that only a few are radicalized and present a danger. No leader is yet to step forward in this country and say that its Islam that's at the heart of the problem. And until that leader emerges many can only voice their concerns and continue to look for the American Geert Wilders.
Geert Wilders wants to ban the Koran, impose a tax on headscarves and calculate the cost of immigration. The Dutch right-wing populist also plans to run for prime minister in 2011 -- and his party is currently leading in the polls.
Wilders stands a chance of becoming prime minister of the Netherlands. The country's next parliamentary election is scheduled for May 2011, and his party, the PVV, has been leading in the polls for months. According to those polls, if elections were held today the PVV would capture about 20 percent of the vote. It performed almost as well in the European elections in June as the ruling Christian Democrats.
The leader of the PVV is featured on the cover page of some newspaper every day, and every headline about Wilders on the Internet gets three times as many clicks as a headline about Jan Peter Balkenende. Although Balkenende is the Dutch prime minister, Wilders already holds considerable sway over the government. Since he left the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in 2004, he has applied great pressure on Dutch administrations with his campaign against Islam. Many of his sentences begin with the words "One ought to be allowed to say that…," followed by statements like: Dutch culture is better than that of the Muslims; there is an Islamic invasion; the Muslims are turning Europe into an Arab colony. The reality is more complicated than that, but Wilders prefers to use simple words.
He wants to "recapture" the Netherlands from the hands of the Islamists, street-by-street and neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Wilders uses expressions like "Moroccan street terrorists" and "the Islamization tsunami" -- soundbites that are made for headlines. For him, Muslims are people who pollute the public space with their headscarves, their "beards of hate," burqas and mosques. Wilders even recently called for a tax on headscarves: €1,000 ($1,500) per person and year. But he insists that he has nothing against Muslims, only against Islam.
This is an abstruse verbal balancing act, but the people of this small, wealthy, liberal country are not troubled by Wilders' outrageous remarks. Much has changed in the Netherlands since the day, five years ago, when a fanatical Islamist shot and killed the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, then slit his throat and pinned a threatening message to his chest with a knife. Nov. 2, 2004 was the Netherlands' Sept. 11, and after that day many politicians declared that the country was now at war.
It was the day that Geert Wilders' rise to prominence began. read more
