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| Geert Wilders |
THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD: THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS — (JTA) — Standing in front of a giant flag, a tall blond politician asks his excited followers whether their country should have greater or fewer Moroccans.
When they are done chanting “fewer,” the speaker, Geert Wilders of the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom, promises his listeners that he will “take care of it.”
Wilders was speaking at an event here to celebrate his party’s strong showing in March 19 local elections, and he chuckled as supporters cheered his pledge.
A fierce critic of Islam who has compared the Koran to “Mein Kampf” and called the Prophet Muhammad the devil, Wilders had steered clear of slurring specific Muslim communities, instead peddling a unique brand of populist conservatism that eschewed the kind of Nazi-inflected, anti-Jewish rhetoric popular among far-right groups elsewhere in Europe.
But his “fewer Moroccans” comment has generated a furious backlash because it was seen as the first time he had engaged in open racism that targeted an entire group as undesirable by definition. The statement has cost him much of the sympathy he enjoyed in some quarters of the Dutch Jewish community and blurred the lines that had separated him from other European far-right leaders.
“This is different from his past statements,” the pro-Israel journalist Ratna Pele wrote on the website RepubliekAllochtonie.nl. “Before it was about Islam or Moroccan criminals, now it’s about the entire group that he says is unacceptable and needs to get out of the country.” » | Cnaan Lipshiz | Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Dutch Leader Geert Wilders Slammed as New 'Hitler' for 'Fewer Moroccans' Remark »
