Garbage In, Garbage Out

Below is a report by the eminent Dutch researcher and writer Carel Brendel on the coordinated campaign against Geert Wilders and the PVV, as translated by our Flemish correspondent VH:

Nonsense Reports used as pinch bar against PVV

By Carel Brendel

René Danen is thrashing out wildly. In a press release his foundation, Nederland Bekent Kleur (NBK) [“Netherlands Admits Color”], announces that other PVV MPs [besides Geert Wilders] need to be addressed as well, including MP Hero Brinkman. It is striking that René Danen relies on two dubious reports.

First there is the Islamophobia report of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Winnie Sorgdrager [former Minister of Justice for D66 and now on the Queen’s advisory board] and others caused quite a stir in February 2008 with their controversial definitions of Islamophobia, and — with the help of the anti-racism bureaus — provided figures. The report was a nice weapon in the fight against Geert Wilders, but at the same time liberal critics of Islam were also painted black. When the report threatened not to damage the PVV, but to harm the Dutch reputation in the Muslim world, the Dutch multicultural institution Forum rushed to forward the real facts to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

A second dubious source for René Danen is the report by the Anne Frank Foundation of Leiden University [see correction], which is produced with the questionable methods of the “scientific” researcher Jaap van Donselaar. [for Dutch readers, the article on the pseudo-science of Jaap van Donselaar can be read here]. It is not a coincidence that this report — in which the PVV is pushed into a fascist corner — was published just before the handling of the complaints against Geert Wilders by the Amsterdam Court. And again, the ammunition came from the politically biased anti-racism warriors.

[Correction from Carel via the comments: To put things right: Anne Frank Stichting is not part of Leiden University, but is the foundation that works in the memory of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl that was murdered by the Nazis and wrote the famous diary. The Anne Frank Stichting combats racism and anti-Semitism as well. Mr. Van Donselaar, who wrote the biased report, works for both institutions, Leiden University and the Anne Frank Foundation.]

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With two biased and unscientific reports in the pocket, plus a court order which — according to the Wall Street Journal — the Netherlands imported Saudi legal standards, Danen hopes to take on the PVV in a broad-based attack.

Strangely enough, René Danen does not act against racism and extremism in his own ranks. NBK [committee of recommendation here] works continuously in association with the Trotskyite International Socialists (IS). An activist for Netherlands Admits Color (NBK) is Miriyam Aouragh [here and here and here], a prominent IS member, in 2004 a speaker at the commemoration of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and in constant solidarity with the anti-Semitic terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah that aim for the destruction of all Jews. The strange situation thus arises here that groups that work closely together with political Islam are trying to silence the critics of political Islam.