Showing posts with label the Hague. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Hague. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Geert Wilders 'Hate' Trial to Go ahead in Amsterdam

BBC: The trial of Dutch political leader Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred against Muslims is to go ahead, an Amsterdam court has ruled.

Mr Wilders, whose Freedom Party props up the government, had argued the court could not try the case as the alleged offences took place in The Hague.

He insists his remarks on Islam were part of a legitimate political debate.

An original trial was halted last October after claims of bias by Mr Wilders against the judges were upheld.

Mr Wilders has described Islam as "fascist", comparing the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf.

In his ruling on Wednesday, Judge Marcel van Oosten said the court would pursue the charges against him for the comparisons he had made with Nazism, according to Dutch media. » | Wednesday, March 30, 2011

DEUTSCHE WELLE: Dutch court orders resumption of Wilders race hate trial: After months of adjournments and objections, a Dutch court has given the go-ahead for the race hate trial of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, who faces charges including inciting hatred. » | Darren Mara (AFP, AP, dpa) | Wednesday, March 30, 2011

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Court orders trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP » | AFP | Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Wilders to Take Council Seat in the Hague

DUTCHNEWS.nl: Geert Wilders is to take a seat on the Hague city council after winning 13,000 preference votes in last week's local elections.

Earlier Wilders, who is a sitting MP, said he would not take up a seat if he won. His anti-Islam party PVV emerged as the second biggest party in the political capital, with 17% of the vote.

'I am going to see if I can combine it. I will give it a go for a while,' Wilders was reported as saying.

The news means two of the eight PVV councillors in the Hague's new city council will combine their work with being members of parliament. [Source: DutchNews.nl] | Monday, March 08, 2010

Niederlande: Rechtspopulist Wilders wird Stadtrat

DIE PRESSE: Der niederländische Rechtspopulist und Parlamentarier Geert Wilders nimmt nun auch ein Mandat als Stadtrat in Den Haag an. "Ich werde es auf jeden Fall eine Zeit lang versuchen", kündigt Wilders an.

Nach dem Erfolg seiner Partei für die Freiheit (PVV) bei den niederländischen Kommunalwahlen wird der Rechtspopulist Geert Wilders künftig im Stadtrat von Den Haag sitzen. Eine Sprecherin der Stadt bestätigte am Montag, dass Wilders sein Mandat wahrnehmen werde. Der umstrittene Politiker sagte der niederländischen Nachrichtenagentur ANP, er habe sich nach anfänglichem Zögern für das Amt des Stadtrats entschieden. "Ich werde es auf jeden Fall eine Zeit lang versuchen", sagte er. Wilders ist auch Abgeordneter des niederländischen Parlaments. Platz zwei für Wilders in Den Haag >>> Ag. | Montag, 08. März 2010

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Mohammed Is Most Popular Boy's Name in Four Biggest Dutch Cities

THE TELEGRAPH: Mohammed, or other variations of the name of Islam's founding prophet, has become the most popular name choice for baby boys in the four biggest cities of the Netherlands.

Information collected by the country's social security agency has found that traditional Dutch names have been displaced in the urban centres of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht as the country's Muslim population grows.

In The Hague variations of the name Mohammed have taken first, second and fifth place in the Dutch capital's league table of most popular names for boys, replacing traditional favourites such as Jan, Luuk, Gijs or Daan.

At a national level the name Mohammed is now the 16th most popular name for boys.

The figures, obtained by the Dutch Elsevier magazine, from the Dutch Social Insurance Bank, or Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB), are different from the official statistics which have in the past counted various spellings of Mohammed, Muhamed, or Muhammad as different names.

Previous government name counts, separating the different versions, have avoided controversy by keeping the name of Islam's founder outside the Dutch top 20 of favourite names for baby boys.

Geert Wilders, leader of the far-Right, anti-Islam Freedom Party, which is currently leading the Dutch opinion polls, has demanded a government investigation following the Daily Telegraph's Aug 8 report that over a fifth of the European Union's population has been forecast to be Muslim by 2050. >>> Bruno Waterfield | Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Dutch Teens Convicted of Insulting Jews Ordered to Visit Anne Frank House

HAARETZ: A Dutch judge has ordered four teenagers to visit the Anne Frank House museum after finding them guilty of discrimination for insulting Jews at a rally.

The boys, aged 14 to 17, must turn in a report to the Hague Police Judge about their visit the canal house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family hid from Nazi occupiers during World War II.

The four boys were convicted Friday for insulting Jews who were protesting Israel's military attack on Gaza. Prosecutors say two boys held a banner with a swastika superimposed on the Star of David, and two shouted "Hamas, Hamas, all Jews to the gas."

The judge also convicted and fined three adults for shouting anti-Semitic slogans at the Jan. 18 rally in The Hague. [Source: Haaretz] The Associated Press | Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback – The Netherlands) >>>

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Hague “on Hot Bricks” over Fitna

PRESS TV (IRAN): The Hague holds talks with envoys from 30 Muslim states to discuss the imminent release of an anti-Islam film made by a Dutch politician.

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen met with the ambassadors at the request of the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC) over the Web and possible television broadcast of the anti-Islam clip made by the maverick politician Geert Wilders.

The talks were held amidst vehement protests from Muslim nations, including Egypt, Iran and Pakistan which have threatened an economic boycott of the Netherlands if the short film is shown.

The latest of Wilders' provocative actions against Islam has escalated another worldwide outrage similar to the one following the publication of the Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The Dutch government, which tries to maintain its 'freedom of expression', has tried but failed to persuade Wilders not to broadcast the film. [Source: Hague on hot bricks over Wilders' clip >>>]

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

'I Don't Hate Muslims. I Hate Islam,' Says Holland's Rising Political Star

Photobucket
Photo of Geert Wilders courtesy of The Guardian

THE GUARDIAN: Geert Wilders, the popular MP whose film on Islam has fuelled the debate on race in Holland, wants an end to mosque building and Muslim immigration. Ian Traynor met him in The Hague

A TV addict with bleached hair who adores Maggie Thatcher and prefers kebabs to hamburgers, Geert Wilders has got nothing against Muslims. He just hates Islam. Or so he says. 'Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology,' says Wilders, a lanky Roman Catholic right-winger, 'the ideology of a retarded culture.'

The Dutch politician, who sees himself as heir to a recent string of assassinated or hounded mavericks who have turned Holland upside down, has been doing a crash course in Koranic study. Likening the Islamic sacred text to Hitler's Mein Kampf, he wants the 'fascist Koran' outlawed in Holland, the constitution rewritten to make that possible, all immigration from Muslim countries halted, Muslim immigrants paid to leave and all Muslim 'criminals' stripped of Dutch citizenship and deported 'back where they came from'. But he has nothing against Muslims. 'I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. Not with Muslim people.'

Wilders has been immersing himself in the suras and verse of seventh-century Arabia. The outcome of his scholarship, a short film, has Holland in a panic. He is just putting the finishing touches to the 10-minute film, he says, and talking to four TV channels about screening it.

'It's like a walk through the Koran,' he explains in a sterile conference room in the Dutch parliament in The Hague, security chaps hovering outside. 'My intention is to show the real face of Islam. I see it as a threat. I'm trying to use images to show that what's written in the Koran is giving incentives to people all over the world. On a daily basis Moroccan youths are beating up homosexuals on the streets of Amsterdam.'

Wilders is lucid and shrewd and the provactive soundbites trip easily off his tongue. He was recently voted Holland's most effective politician. If 18 months ago he sat alone in the second chamber or lower house in The Hague, his People's Party now has nine of 150 seats and is running at about 15 per cent in the polls. His Islam-bashing seems to be paying off. And not only in Holland. All across Europe, the new breed of right-wing populists are trying to revive their political fortunes by appealing to anti-Muslim prejudice. 'I don't hate Muslims. I hate Islam,' says Holland's rising political star >>> By Ian Traynor in The Hague

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Friday, February 01, 2008

The Netherlands: Refused Asylum-Seekers to Be Deported

EXPATICA: About 5,000 asylum seekers who have exhausted their appeals are not eligible for amnesty and must leave the Netherlands.

1 February 2008



THE HAGUE – About 5,000 asylum seekers who have exhausted their appeals are not eligible for amnesty and must leave the Netherlands. State secretary for Justice Nebahat Albayrak predicts that carrying out the deportations will make 2008 a "very difficult year."



The deportation of these people will require enormous efforts, the minister said on Friday after the cabinet meeting.
Another round of deportations for refused asylum seekers >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Wilders: Cabinet Fears Prove Islam's Intolerance

NIS NEWS BULLETIN: THE HAGUE, 24/01/08 - In an open letter in newspaper De Volkskrant yesterday, Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders criticised the commotion over his Koran film. With their panicky reactions, politicians and authorities are proving that Islam is an intolerant ideology, in his view.

Wilders uses half of his letter to sketch a contrast between Islam and Christianity. "Imagine that (...) it became known that I was going to make a film to demonstrate the Fascist character of the Bible. Say that I had urged in a letter a few months earlier that the Bible should be banned. (...) Would Premier Balkenende then (...) have spoken of a serious crisis with international effects? Would there (...) have been a special meeting of ministers? Would the chief editors (...) in public broadcasting have conferred about how to deal with the film?" (...) "Of course not."

Wilders summarises a further catalogue of things that would "of course not" have happened if he had criticised the Bible. "But now that my film is not about the Bible but about the Koran, government, media, Muslims and others have been in a state of hysterical panic for weeks." There are two explanations for this, according to Wilders.

"Firstly, Islam is an intolerant ideology (...), within which there is no room for matters like self-reflection and self-criticism. Nor does there appear to be any room for individual responsibility and self-control. (...). Secondly, there is a question of fear. The emergency scenarios (of authorities) illustrate the state of panic within the Dutch government at the moment." (...) "It is not the cabinet (....) but the fear of Islam that governs the Netherlands."

"The fact that a not yet shown film of about 10 minutes could according to some lead to economic boycotts, riots and other horrible things says everything about the nature of Islam. Nothing about me. The cabinet acknowledges with its panicky reaction that Islam is not comparable to Christianity, but is a unique ideology. And this ideology thus demands a separate, unique approach. The Koran film has thus already demonstrated its usefulness."

The National Anti-terrorism Coordinator has warned Wilders that he may have to leave the Netherlands temporarily after the appearance of his anti-Koran film, Wilders added in the letter. The film will appear in "a few weeks," said the PVV leader. [Source: Wilders: Cabinet Fears Prove Islam's Intolerance >>>]

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)