IRISH TIMES: In an extraordinary personal and political transformation, a former senior member of Geert Wilders’s virulently anti-immigrant Freedom Party (PVV) has converted to Islam – saying it was the party’s anti-Muslim rhetoric which led him to look more deeply into his new religion.
Arnoud van Doorn (46), formerly vice-chair of the PVV group on The Hague city council, announced his conversion on Twitter, first with a tweet saying he was about to make “a new beginning” – and later with another in Arabic proclaiming the Shahadah, his public declaration of belief.
Before leaving the PVV last year to set up a new party, Independent The Hague, Mr van Doorn was regarded as a staunch supporter of Mr Wilders, who wants to end immigration from non-western countries and described Islam as “a retarded culture” and the Koran as “a fascist book”.
Mr van Doorn – who is married, with three foster children – first declined to comment on his conversion, claiming his faith was “a private matter”, but subsequently appeared on al-Jazeera television to say the decision had been “a difficult one” and “not taken lightly”. » | Peter Cluskey in The Hague | Saturday, March 09, 2013
DEUTSCH TÜRKISCHES JOURNAL: Nicht der erste Politiker mit erstaunlichem Sinneswandel: Ende Februar twitterte Arnoud van Doorn, bis 2011 Vize-Vorsitzender der PVV-Fraktion im Gemeinderat Den Haag, das islamische Glaubensbekenntnis. Van Doorn ist nicht der erste Ex-Wilders-Anhänger mit einem erstaunlichen Sinneswandel. » | Von André Krause | Freitag, 08. März 2013
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