Dutch Muslims expressed shock on Thursday at the election win of far-right populist Geert Wilders, who has previously called for mosques and the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilders has long insulted Islam, describing it as a fascist ideology of \u201ca retarded culture\u201d and a \u201cbackward religion\u201d. Since 2004, he has been under police protection and in 2016 was convicted of discrimination after he called Moroccans \u201cscum\u201d at a campaign rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Habib El Kaddouri, the head of a group representing Dutch Moroccans, spoke of “enormous distress and fear” that Wilders would “portray us as second-class citizens”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilders, who was once banned from entering the UK because of his record of incitement, has made his reputation as an anti-Islam agitator and wrote in a foreword to his election programme that “the Netherlands is not an Islamic country”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His party\u2019s manifesto includes a ban on mosques, the Qur\u2019an and Islamic headscarves in government buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These election results are shocking for Dutch Muslims. 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,” said Muhsin Koktas of Muslim organization CMO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Muslims make up around 5% of the Dutch population of almost 18 million people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dutch Muslims expressed shock on Thursday at the election win of far-right populist Geert Wilders, who has previously called for mosques and the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands. Wilders has long insulted Islam, describing it as a fascist ideology of \u201ca retarded culture\u201d and a \u201cbackward religion\u201d. Since 2004, he has been under …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":98647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,31],"tags":[5867,5866],"class_list":["post-98646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-dutch-elections","tag-muslims-in-netherlands"],"yoast_head":"\n