Friday, January 23, 2009

Two Camps in the Netherlands

An article from today’s De Telegraaf, translated for Gates of Vienna by H. Numan:

“Muslims are proven right again”

AMSTERDAM — the gap between non-Muslims and Muslims is widening, stated Contact Organ Muslims and government (CMO). “It’s more than ever us versus them”, said vice chairman Yusuf Altuntas.

Through the website of De Telegraaf yesterday about seven thousand responses came to our questionnaire regarding the matter. Many respondents said the decision to prosecute Wilders is yet another example of the ongoing Islamisation of The Netherlands. “Slowly but surely Islam gets its way once again. Disgusting!” one of the typical responses.

Amsterdammer Piet Jan Poelman will therefore do something about it. “When Wilders runs out of money for his lawyer, he can use mine: Cleerding & Hamer. That way he doesn’t have to worry about the bill.”

Attention
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The CMO, the official spokespartner for the government, is rather worried about the consequences for the atmosphere in the nation. “There are unquestionably two camps in The Netherlands; Wilders is right now completely in his element,” said Altuntas, who is also director of the Turkish mosque Milli Görüs. “We just started to try to ignore his insults, which reduced his popularity. And now he is again in the limelight.”

Despite all this, Altunas favors prosecution. “If this is the price we have to pay for the message that nobody is above the law, so be it.” Mustafa Aarab, program leader of the Muslim Dutch Broadcasting Corporation (NIO) thinks differently. He is likewise worried about rising tensions between non-Muslims and Muslims. “People are afraid of Islamisation. I can’t understand why Muslims say they are happy with the prosecution. The gap only gets wider, just because of it. Lawyer Haroon Raza, one of the plaintiffs in the case, finds the complaint justifiable. “Should it have undesired effects, so be it.”

The same is said by Art. 1, national expertise center on discrimination “Wilders had a carte blanche to be able to say anything, for he wasn’t prosecuted. This time a different signal has been given. We expect a massive response, but everybody should know that people who want to say anything about Muslims won’t be muzzled, really.”

5 comments:

Holger said...

Wonderful that someone is stepping up and helping with a lawyer!

Unknown said...

@ Holger: Would be super indeed! But unfortunately Cleerding & Hamer is an arts gallery in Amsterdam and that Poelman is of no reputation. Or I am wrong, or it is a nasty little hoax…

Kim Hartveld said...

"Wilders is right now completely in his element,” said Altuntas, ... “We just started to try to ignore his insults, which reduced his popularity. And now he is again in the limelight.”

This goes to show that some muslims are totally clueless about what drives Wilders. I believe Wilders is far from being in his element. He wants to stop the islamization of his country, period. He can do fine without being dragged in front of the inquisition by some Amsterdam sharia court for the purposes of political theater.

heroyalwhyness said...

Quote from above: "Wilders is right now completely in his element,” said Altuntas, who is also director of the Turkish mosque Milli Görüs. "


Identifying the terms puts it in perspective:


Milli Görüs is a Turkish Islamist movement

Snouck said...

VH:
Cleerding @ Hamer are a Amsterdam laywers firm. They have got 30 laywers working for them. The firm was co-founded founded by the late Gerard Hamer, who had a good reputation.

The firm specializes in criminal cases and real estate. It is not an inconsiderable firm.

I do not know who that Mr. Poelman is either. I hope he has deep pockets.

Regards,

Snouck