Worldly Chatter

Wilders makes a lot of noise in the Netherlands and this is of no surprise to me or anyone else for that matter. His talk against the Koran and Islam are well known and he seems to make a point of running his mouth around to stir trouble, especially the latest with his proposal to ban the Koran in Holland. (article) What is surprising is that his party Dutch Freedom Party or Partij voor de Vrijheid, is gaining popularity in the population. At the same time, some of his own party members are trying to distant themselves from their party leader. Liberal VVD MP Halbe Zijlstra thinks that “Wilders has lost his way.” “He claims to stand up for Dutch standards and values, but at the same time he puts one of these values out with the rubbish: the freedom of religion.” Christian democrat CDA MP Madeleine van Toorenburg also said Wilders’ disregard for this freedom was remarkable. At the same time the Foreign Minister is also making it known she isn’t with Wilders on any of this. Maxime Verhagen believes that he has gone too far and oversteps all this is good. The Integration Minister, Ella Vogelaar, says they will never put a ban on the Koran nor will they in the future. So, if politicians aren’t backing him up, or at least a good portion of them, how is all of this gaining so much momentum? (article)

His party already stands for a great many things that do not make me too comfortable. They would like to see a ban on immigration to anyone not from a ‘western’ country, stricter laws on integration and a ban on Islam entirely in the Netherlands. My knowledge of the Netherlands and its foundation is the freedoms it grants its people. The freedom of religion, speech, marriage, on, and on the list can go. In many ways, it has been ahead of others in its policies and practices. The Dutch enjoy a great many things many other countries do not and that is part of its appeal to immigrants. It is part of why so many tourists come every year to its streets. Holland, where you can have a joint, watch a gay wedding and pay a girl for sex. Tourists feel the atmosphere is different and enjoy the relaxation these cities can give while sitting on a terrace. It is the country where you are free to speak your thoughts, constructively and peacefully get what you seek when once someone told you no. Many people seek out a country like Holland because where they come from they could be shot for reading the bible or hung for coming out of the closet. The jobs might be better, pay could be better or maybe it is simply because there aren’t any jobs where they are from.

Being such a country means there is a weight to carry. So many, some say too many, people want to come here. This is Wilders and his supporters come in. They feel the ‘wrong people’ are coming into the country and tainting its Dutchness. Are they right? Is there cause for such extreme talk? There seems to be many a Dutchmen believe so. In recent years, there have been a higher number of crimes when it comes to gays, people who use their freedom of speech and those who speak out against Islam. Some see Wilders as a man who sees the problem and knows how to fix it. Punish the many for the crimes of the few? Crash hard on a culture that has had a hard time integrating into such a open minded society is what his plan is. It is turning many once open minded people into people who hate and fear a group of people.

How does handling hate and bigotry with hate and bigotry solve anything? Yet that is Wilders answer to it all.

I will not deny that there are some of the Islamic faith who have issue and trouble with mingling into this society. Even a southern or northern American could find it challenging to integrate into this. It has been an eye opener for me to say the least. Some here who refuse to integrate into this country, it makes it harder for themselves as well as those around them, and it is westerners and non-westerners alike. It is by no means an easy society to blend into when it is so far from what you are used to. That doesn’t give them an excuse, that is not what I am saying. One must put forth effort to integrate into the society you put yourself in. Which ever country you come from, you moved there and must find a way to peacefully exist in it. You would expect the same if someone moved into your country.

I just don’t know that any of this solves a thing. Hatred doesn’t do anyone good and I fear that the hatred and bigotry that Wilders puts forth can be infectious and bad for the society he seems to want to protect.

Wilders, PVV, Islam in the Netherlands, immigration, integration, Worldly Chatter, Netherlands, Expats

Wilders is at it again, the Dutch politician, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, PVV, has had some interesting things to say about the Qur’an. In a letter to the Volkskrant, he stated that we needed to propose a ban on the Islamic holy book, stating it was a fascist book, which incited violence. It isn’t the first time Geert Wilders has spoken out against the Islamic religion and the Qur’an and I doubt it will be the last.

That is a bit extreme if you ask me. Here we have a book meant for prayer, enlightenment and a connection to their creator. It is the same as the bible, it was never intended for violence, it was so that people had something to go by, a direction to guide them with their faith. If the Qur’an should be banned according to Wilders then I vote to ban the bible as well. That book has seen many of battles in its name and honor. Blood spilt all over the world in the name of God and His laws. Protestants and Catholics, The Catholics and the Jewish people, Crusades, there is so much violence since the existence of this book and its followers. So, if Wilders thinks it is religion is the cause then make it equal.

However, that won’t help will it? The truth is many people do not trust the Islamic faith no matter how many people show them passages and tell them how it is really meant to be. So much violence in the name of Allah has made too many people skeptical of it all. All one has to do is turn on the television and see it, so how is one or two people going to change their minds? I have read a few passages of the Qur’an and had a friend who is from Egypt and Muslim attempt to explain it to me. I am not a religious person by any means. I have no affiliation with any religion and rather like it that way. I have a tendency to be skeptical of religion as a whole so I imagine I wasn’t a very good pupil, asking all the questions I did several times over. Clarity was something I didn’t find but I did learn a few things. Not all are extremists and honor the book the way it was intended.

I care neither way whether you are Muslim, Catholic, Mormon or Jewish. What I do care about is whether or not you respect your fellow neighbor and the laws of the land you live in. Inciting hate or violence based on religion or ignorance is absurd, foolish, sad and in the end no one wins. Abdeljarmid Khairoun, chairman of the Dutch Muslim Council has invited Wilders to discuss his views on Islam and its holy book but has refused. If that is the case then Wilders is foolish. A smart man, who has issue against something, first educates himself fully on the topic before trashing something with guns blazing. I have issue with the Christian faith; it is no news to anyone who knows me. The Christian religion and I go way back and it has been less than pretty to say the least. I will openly discuss the faith and its religion but only because I have read the Bible, understand its teachings and the structure of the Christian Churches. If I went about talking against the church with no basis for it, I would be considered ignorant and stupid for opening my mouth in the first place. Yet I sit here, with a good understanding of it all, still holding my beliefs on the matter and it is because of experience and education that I can do such things.

I understand the mistrust in the Netherlands and around the world. It is something we live with now and cannot go back to change it. What to do about the mistrust is a harder thing to understand. Yet, I personally do not see banning a holy book as an answer. If you deprive someone of something they will want it all the more. How will that solve anything? How will going on like this help anyone either? Hate cannot be answered with hate and ignorance can it?

Islam, Geert Wilders, Netherlands, Hate, Religious Hate, Worldly Chatter, PVV

I was reading the news on NetherlandsNews.net over my morning coffee when I bumped into an article that caught my attention. It was an article written by Bruno Waterfield of the Telegraph, India who writes on a Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

“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 value. “Islam itself is the problem. Islam is a violent religion,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “The Prophet Mohammed was a violent man. The Quran is mostly a violent book. We should invest in Muslim people but they have to first get rid of half the Quran and half of their beliefs,” he said.” More

Wilders has been stirring a bit of trouble in the Dutch government on a number of issues, not just this. De Volkskrant (a Dutch newspaper) reports Geert Wilder also has provoked the outrage of a large number of politicians in The Hague with his announcement that he plans to submit a motion of no-confidence against state secretaries Ahmed Aboutaleb and Nebahat Albayrak. Wilders wants to submit the motion on Thursday during the parliamentary debate on the government statement. There isn’t anything that these two individuals have done to deserve this. The government is outraged over his recent conduct as his only basis for this is that they carry dual citizenship, Moroccan and Turkish respectively. He is also unhappy with new Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar as she does not want to ban burqas completely but rather only have them banned in public places and settings where they are dealing with large groups of people face to face…More

I share this because this is an ongoing issue all over Europe, not just the Netherlands. In the UK recently burqas were banned from being worn in public and there has been tension between Muslims and the English on such issues as religion, culture and whether Muslims are trying to dominate the area and force people to conform to them. Here in the Netherlands it isn’t just Wilders who are having issues; he is just the only one making enough noise.

What can be done to quiet the noise that has been going on all across Europe? How do you appease the people who have long called this or that country home while also making Muslims who are fast becoming the fastest spreading religion in the world happy? When you watch the news and see outside your door the unrest that is between the Islamic culture and the western world it makes you uneasy just to talk about it outside your own private rooms. To the average person we see that the Muslims won’t see the western culture for what it is and adapt to it when they come and live in it and the western world sees no reason to bend to accommodate them. Should we accommodate to them? Should they, who have come to us, accept what is and adapt to the environment they moved to? Some even fear that because of the rush of Muslims coming to western countries that those countries will lose their own identity and culture in hopes of not sounding hateful and ignorant and running around trying to find room for them.

A lot of people, while not liking how Wilders is going about it, agree with some of what he has to say and what he is trying to do. It is the same with what goes on in France and in the UK. Measures are being taken to ban burqas and, for a lack of a better word or term, take back their culture they feel is being lost in the constant need to accommodate people who come to their land. It is something constantly being talked about by some and avoided by others but will anything change?

 

Europe, Geert Wilders, UK, Netherlands, Islam, Dual Citizenship, expats