THE HAGUE — MP Geert Wilders, the leader of the far right Freedom Party, pressed Wednesday, August 8, for banning the Noble Qur’an in the Netherlands, drawing immediate rebuke from the government.
"Ban this wretched book like "Mein Kampf" is banned," Wilders wrote in a letter published in the local De Volkskrant newspaper and cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf outlines the future Nazi dictator's racist ideology It has been banned in the Netherlands since the end of World War II.
"Send a signal to…Islamic radicals that the Qur’an cannot be used in the Netherlands as an inspiration or an excuse for violence," wrote MP Wilders, whose party holds nine seats in the 150-member parliament.
He claimed that the Muslim holy book has no place in "our constitutional state," claiming that the Qur’an asks Muslims to persecute or kill non-Muslims and to establish an Islamic state by force.
"I have been saying this for years: there is no such thing as a moderate Islam," wrote the far-right lawmaker.
"I am fed up with Islam in the Netherlands: no more Muslim immigrants allowed.
"I am fed up with the worship of Allah and Muhammad in the Netherlands: no more mosques."
Earlier this year, Wilders pressed for a no-confidence vote against Muslim ministers Ahmed Aboutaleb and Nebahat Albayrak, questioning their loyalty to the Netherlands.
He has also campaigned to ban the building of new mosques and halt all Muslim immigration.
Muslims make up one million of the Netherlands’s 16 million population.
Rebuked, Sued
The government swiftly condemned the remarks as damaging for community relations and said the proposal was unworthy of consideration.
"It has to be perfectly clear that banning the Qur’an in the Netherlands is not up for discussion for this government and will not be up for discussion in future," Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar said in a statement.
"We have freedom or religion here."
Vogelaar described Wilders' call as "an insult to the majority of Muslims in the Netherlands and abroad who reject calls to hate and violence."
The anti-terrorism chief had recently warned the MP that his repeated anti-Islam remarks were going too far and were stoking anger in the Middle East.
Ayhan Tonca, chairman of the Muslim umbrella group, ridiculed the allegations about the Muslim holy book.
"This is a ridiculous idea," he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
He accused the far-right MP of playing the anti-Islam card for political gains.
"There is not much news at the moment so he is trying to create some.
"This is typical Wilders."
Lawyer Els Lucas was not satisfied with words and took action against the controversial MP.
He filed a legal complaint against the MP for "insulting a section of the community".
The offence is punishable with a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a fine of up to 16,750 euros (23,065 dollars).
The Dutch public prosecutor's office will have to decide whether or not to go ahead with a court case against Wilders.
"I think he has gone too far and it is unseemly that a member of parliament expresses himself like this," Lucas told the ANP news agency.
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