Dutch politicians have rejected calls raised by a member of the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) to shut down all mosques in the European country, describing this as "unacceptable".
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The extreme Dutch right-wing Party for Freedom had "exceeded the limit", Netherlands Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher was quoted by Anadolu Agency on Thursday, November 27. Asscher's comments followed a parliamentary debate on integration in which PVV representative Machiel de Graaf called for closing all mosques in Netherlands. Graaf said that Holland free of mosques would be better overall, adding “We want to cleanse Holland from all traces of Islam”. Claiming that his party “wants to de-Islamize the Netherlands", the far-right politician warned that the high birth rates of Muslims is endangering the Dutch identity. “Dutch unity, identity and culture are being wrecked by immigration and via wombs," Graaf added. "We do not want Islam in the Netherlands." Gaarf is a member of PVV, the far right party led by Dutch politician Geert Wilder who is notorious for his rants against Islam and Muslims. Wilders has called for banning the Noble Qur’an, describing the Muslim holy book as “fascist”. In 2008, Wilders released a 15-minute documentary accusing the Qur’an of inciting violence. Wilders’ visit comes amid tension in Australia over a recent protest by Australian Muslims against a US-made film mocking Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him), which degenerated into violence. "Dangerous" Opposing PVV anti-Islam remarks, several Dutch politicians have considered calls to close mosques "dangerous". The PvdA, the Workers Party, representative, Roos Vermeij, and the Democrat 66 (D66) party member, Sten van Weijenberg, called on the PVV deputies to "retract" their words. While the Labor MP Khadija Arib, who chaired the parliamentary debate on integration, said that “the integration debate had reached a low point.” On his part, deputy PM Asscher warned that PVV calls to ban mosques are "against the Dutch constitution" and that "Muslims had the same rights as other Dutch citizens". Muslims make up one million of the Netherlands’s 16 million population, mostly from Turkish and Moroccan origin. Last May, Wilders has put his country in hot water after distributing stickers with the Saudi-flag, replacing the text of the shahada with anti-Islam slurs, after which the Kingdom slapped indirect sanctions on the European country. More recently, far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders has been last October summoned by prosecutors over his “racial” remarks against Moroccans last March, amid expectation of facing a trial over his latest anti-immigration rants.
