March 19h, 2017 

Response to questions on Quora about Geert Wilders replorable views. 

The question “do Dutch people agree with Geert Wilders that the Quran should be banned and all Mosques in the Netherlands should be closed ?” is an astonishing and disturbing question.

Such a measure is definitely not supported and is rather illogical since freedom of religion has been guaranteed in Article 1 of our constitution and like in most societies freedom of religion is a basic right.

The Islamophobia and Xenophobe views of Geert Wilders are not supported and can only be viewed as repulsive, reminding us of the 1930’s, a dark period in our common European history.

To elaborate, the Netherlands with a GDP of $769 billion is a rich and civilized country and can be historically best described as a multicultural liberal society. The country has a population of 17.1 million of which 68 % is unaffiliated, 25% Christian and 6% Muslim.

The history of religion in the Netherlands is that there has always been considerable diversity of religious thought and practice. In Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 the independence of the Netherlands was recognized and the country was known at the time by Anglicans, Protestants and Jews for its religious tolerance.

The Netherlands became a refuge for persecuted such as the Huguenots from France and Puritans from England, as well as a home for many of these migrants. During the 17th and 18th century the part of first-generation immigrants in Amsterdam was nearly 50 %. The Jews had their own laws and formed a separate society.

Given our history of tolerance freedom of religion is a basic right and has been laid down in our constitution, it would be there rather illogical and unacceptable to limit this freedom and close mosques.

It seems Wilders his spirit is so saturated by hate against Muslims that the poor man his world is consisting of only intolerance and hate.

Islam has many faces, just as Christianity and other religions do. However intolerance should have no place in our modern day society.

WJJH