Dutch far right election success shocks Muslims in the country

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – The Dutch PVV party (Party for Freedom), led by right wing leader Geert Wilders has won 37 seats in the Dutch elections, the highest number of seats for one party in a parliament of 150.

The result has shocked Dutch Muslims, as the party’s manifesto includes a ban on mosques, the Qur’an and Islamic headscarves in government buildings.

The Guardian quotes Muhsin Köktas of the Contact Body for Muslims and Government, saying “the distress and fear are enormous”.

He hoped that people from across the Netherlands would join together to defend and protect the rule of law.

The party has to persuade others to form a coalition, but its extreme views put this in doubt. The GreenLeft-Labour alliance came second with 25 seats, and the liberal-conservative Party for Freedom and Democracy won 24.

“These election results are shocking for Dutch Muslims,” said Muhsin Köktas of the Contact Body for Muslims and Government. “We did not expect such a party with a programme that is against the basic principles of the rule of law to be so big.”

At the helm of the Party for Freedom (PVV), Wilders has long taken aim at Islam, describing it as a fascist ideology of “a retarded culture” and a “backward religion”. Since 2004, he has been under police protection and in 2016 was convicted of discrimination after he called Moroccans “scum” at a campaign rally.