Among Dutch Muslims, there is fear after the electoral victory of Geert Wilders’ PVV party, openly anti-Islam. Leaders of the Dutch Muslim community expressed anger and fear after the politician’s success. “We want less Islam in the Netherlands,” we can read in the PVV program.
Wilders called Moroccans “scum”, compared the Quran to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and received death threats after threatening to organize a caricature contest of the Prophet Muhammad. But he muted his anti-Islam rhetoric during the campaign, focusing more on issues such as the rising cost of living.
“I don’t know if Muslims are safe”
Muhsin Koktas, leader of the Muslim association CMO, nevertheless says he is “worried about this country”. “I don’t know if Muslims are still safe in the Netherlands,” he says. “Some are afraid, others are worried about their future, wondering what the result means for their citizenship and their place in Dutch society,” Habib el Kaddouri, of the SMN association of Moroccans, told AFP. Dutch.
“At the same time, I noticed that people are also combative. We will not allow ourselves to be chased away by Geert Wilders or by a right-wing government,” he argues. Muslims interviewed by AFP in Amsterdam and Venlo, Wilders’ hometown on the German border, painted a more nuanced picture, however, with some attaching more importance to economic issues than to his past comments on the Islam.
“I am of Turkish origin and Muslim. However, I voted for Geert Wilders,” said a resident of Venlo on condition of anonymity. “We are all poor and we think he can change things,” he explains.
Seeking to allay minority fears after the vote, Geert Wilders stressed that he wanted to be “the prime minister of all Dutch people, regardless of their religion, their sexuality, their color, their gender or whatever.” or else.” “When you are Prime Minister, your role is different from that of the leader of the opposition,” he argued.