Free Republic

Geert Wilders, popular MP whose film on Islam fuelled debate on race in Holland, wants an end to mosque building & Muslim immigration. .. adores Thatcher... 'Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology,' - Wilders, a lanky Roman Catholic, 'the ideology of a retarded culture.' ..a crash course in Koranic study. Likening the Islamic text to Hitler's Mein Kampf, wants 'fascist Koran' outlawed.. all immigration from Muslim countries halted, Muslim immigrants paid to leave & all Muslim 'criminals' stripped of Dutch citizenship and deported 'back where they came from'.. 'I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. ...Swiss...

MPs unhappy at Morocco's emigrant plan Friday 15 February 2008 Government and opposition MPs are unhappy with plans by Morocco to strengthen ties with its citizens living abroad, reports ANP news agency on Friday. Khadija Arib, an MP with the government coalition Labour party, calls the move undesirable and old-fashioned. ‘This [Moroccan] minister doesn’t understand the situation of Moroccans abroad. The new generation has a different relationship with Morocco than its parents. They go there on visits, on holiday or for business but they have chosen the Netherlands or somewhere else to live,’ Arib told ANP. The Rabat government said...

Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the "Christian Ramadan" in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity. The Catholic charity Vastenaktie, which collects for the Third World across the Netherlands during the Lent period, is concerned that the Christian festival has become less important for the Dutch over the last generation. "The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent," said Vastenaktie Director, Martin...

The Dutch Muslim Council has attacked far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders' politics as "racist and fascist". The council, which includes 200 organisations, appealed for calm ahead of the planned release by the MP of a controversial film. Mr Wilders says his film will show the Koran as an inspiration for murder.

Holland 'governed by fear of Islam' By Joan Clements in The Hague Last Updated: 2:28am GMT 24/01/2008 A politician has warned that a "fear of Islam" is governing Holland after he delayed the release of a short film attacking the Koran. Geert Wilders, 44, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, who compares the Muslim holy book to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, sparked government panic after saying the anti-Islam film would be released tomorrow. As Dutch police prepared for a weekend of riots and Mr Wilders was told by the authorities that he would have to leave country, he launched...

A new report warns against a lack of dialogue and a widening gap between Islam and the West. Danes are among the most critical of Islam, according to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Some 79 percent of Danes responded in a poll that they considered more interaction with the Muslim world as a threat. The worry was shared by a large majority in other European countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, where up to 67 percent of the population feared more Western interaction with Muslim communities. The message of the report was clear: there...

Déjà vu in Holland: A Dutch politician plans to release a film that rips the Koran for promoting violence and intolerance. Politicians and Muslim leaders alike are afraid of a repeat of 2004, when filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered on the streets of Amsterdam. AFP A protester holds a picture of far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders on a mock cigarette packet during a demonstration on Saturday in Amsterdam. A Dutch politician's plan to release a film that charges the Koran with promoting violence and intolerance has sparked controversy in the Netherlands. Government officials are distancing themselves from the project...

Muslim Councillor Tells Rotterdammer: 'Shut Up, Minority' ROTTERDAM, 17/01/08 - Labour (PvdA) politician Bouchra Ismaili has reviled a citizen of Rotterdam in an e-mail. The man was told that as a member of the white minority in his district, he should not complain about the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. Ismaili, who has Moroccan nationality, is a council member for PvdA in the Rotterdam district council of Charlois. "You are the immigrants here!!!", she wrote to the white man who drew her attention by e-mail to statements by the controversial Muslim organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. Ismali also wrote in her e-mail reply...

The origins of ice-skating have been traced by scientists to the frozen lakes of Finland about 5,000 years ago, when people used skates made from animal bone. Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University have calculated that skating on the primitive blades would have reduced the energy cost of travelling by 10 per cent, suggesting that it emerged as a practical method of transport and not as recreation. Southern Finland has been identified as the most likely home of skating through an analysis of the shape and distribution of lakes in central and northern Europe, which shows that the early Finns would...

The Dutch military mission in Afghanistan will be extended by two years, Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has announced. Dutch troops had been scheduled to leave Afghanistan in summer 2008. The decision to extend the mission follows a call by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden for European nations to stop helping US forces in Afghanistan. Bin Laden said that he - and not the Afghans - was the "only one responsible" for the 9/11 attacks. Dutch troops are stationed primarily in the southern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan. Since the Netherlands joined the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) last...

ROME, November 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Petrus Maria Martinus "Tiny" Muskens of the diocese of Breda in the Netherlands. He is  succeeded by Mgr. Johannes Harmannes Jozefus van den Hende, until now coadjutor in the see. Not yet 72, Bishop Muskens is over three years from the usual retirement age of 75, but has surrendered the pastoral governance of the diocese in conformance with can. 401 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law. The canon states, "A diocesan Bishop who, because of illness or some other grave reason, has become...

Suicide bomber fails to set off the bombs in his car. (You may not understand the text but the pictures tell it all)

Amsterdam - Dutch police arrested three people in Amsterdam's Osdorp neighbourhood on Sunday evening on suspicion of attempted arson. They had a jerrycan full of petrol and one of the three also had fireworks with him. Police detained them as they had no reasonable explanation for the petrol or the fireworks. Tensions have been high in several Amsterdam neighbourhoods after a mentally disturbed Moroccan man stabbed two police officers and was subsequently shot dead. Gangs of youths, mainly from immigrant backgrounds, smashed windows and torched cars for several evenings in a row after the fatal shooting.

AMSTERDAM BURNS... Interesting to note this report that Amsterdam has suffered a sixth night of unrest after police officers shot a "Moroccan man" dead. The 22-year old was killed after entering a police station where he stabbed two police officers. Eleven cars have been set on fire this week in the Slotervaart district of Amsterdam, which is mainly populated by "immigrants" i.e Muslims. It goes without saying that this deranged "Moroccan" was himself an immigrant, and of course a Muslim. It appears that Amsterdam's large Muslim community are providing the authorities with a reminder of the muscle they can exercise....

It has been an unusually violent week for Amsterdam's western Slotervaart district. Cars were torched and youths clashed with police on several consecutive nights after a 22-year-old ethnic Moroccan was shot dead at a police station. He was killed by a policewoman he had just stabbed a number of times. The riots that followed reminded Amsterdam's Chief Commissioner Bernard Welten of a major nightmare for Western European cities: violence on a Parisian scale. Every major town in the Netherlands has its share of so-called problem youths, the type of violent adolescents who gang up to terrorise the neighbourhood. Many of...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — The Dutch government will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said Friday, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a series of well-publicized negative incidents.< >— A British tourist, 22, ran amok in a hotel, breaking his window and slicing his hand badly. — An Icelandic tourist, 19, thought he was being chased and jumped from a balcony, breaking both his legs. — A Danish tourist, 29, drove his car wildly through a campground, narrowly missing people sleeping in their tents.< >

The experimentation is already underway. In place of the priest are men and women selected by the faithful. And all together pronounce the words of consecration, which are varied as desired. In the view of the Dutch Dominicans, this is what Vatican Council II wanted ROMA, October 3, 2007 – In restoring full citizenship to the ancient rite of the Mass, with the motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum," Benedict XVI said that he wanted in part to react to the excess of "creativity" that in the new rite "frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear." In...

Holland is the kind of country I have no hope for, barring a miracle. Here another nail in the coffin, via The Tablet The Dominican Order in the Netherlands has issued a radical recommendation that lay ministers chosen by their congregations should be allowed to celebrate the Eucharist if no ordained priests are available. In a booklet posted to all 1,300 parishes in the country, it says that the Church should drop its priest-centred model of the Mass in favour of one built around a community sharing bread and wine in prayer. "Whether they are women or men, homo-...

Breda - The Dutch Roman Catholic bishop Tiny Muskens is urging the faithful of all religions to call God Allah in order to foster mutual understanding. The bishop of the city of Breda says God does not mind what he is called and points out that Allah is the Arabic word for God. The bishop, who is retiring in a few weeks, added he did not expect his ideas to find immediate acceptance. He expects it could take 100 or 200 years. Bishop Muskens has previously defied the Vatican by calling for the acceptance of married priests and the use...

Funny commercial from an insurance company in Apeldoorn (The Netherlands), featuring Bill Clinton. E5vPDJY1xPE

A huge Lego toy has mysteriously appeared on Zandvoort beach in Holland. Nobody knows where it comes from. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6934921.stm

Dutch-Swedish chemicals group Akzo Nobel said Monday it had made a new takeover offer for British rival Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), valuing the company at 8.0 billion pounds (111 billion kronor, $16.3 billion). "Akzo Nobel was able to make this increased proposal after further discussions with both ICI and (German company) Henkel," Akzo Nobel said in a press release. Related Articles Akzo Nobel to develop bird flu vaccine 18th October 2005 Article Options Send to a friend Printable version Submit to Digg.com Akzo Nobel is working with Henkel on an offer for ICI and plans to sell on ICI's adhesives...

Utrecht - One of the seven Dutch soldiers injured in a suicide car bombing in the Afghan province of Uruzgan on Tuesday has died in the Central Military Hospital in the city of Utrecht. The 24-year-old lieutenant is the fourth Dutch soldier to die in fighting in Uruzgan. Three others have also been transferred to Utrecht, while three soldiers are being treated in Afghanistan. The Dutch troops were injured in Tuesday's suicide bomb attack in the province of Uruzgan, in which 17 Afghan civilians were killed.

AMSTERDAM – Dozens of boys and girls have been systematically abused, intimidated and molested by a group of older boys in the Utrecht neighbourhood of Overvecht for almost a year, the Telegraaf reports. Municipal council member Bouchra Dibi (Labour PvdA) investigated the incidents taking place at the playground near the Neckardreef in Overvecht. Children aged 8, 9 and 10 were dragged into the bushes and coerced into performing sexual acts on boys a few years older. Most of the children involved are of Moroccan background, the newspaper reports. The municipal council member told the Telegraaf that the problems are not...

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (BosNewsLife)-- The Netherlands' most famous soldier of the Salvation Army died Monday, June 25, just as the non-military evangelical organization tried to overcome another, financial, crisis by breaking off ties with Internet and computer giant Microsoft. 'Major Bosshardt' passed away "peacefully" in her home in Amsterdam at the age of 94, the Salvation Army said. Alida Margaretha Bosshardt became a Christian at age 18 during an open air meeting of the Salvation Army and soon became involved in social projects. During World War Two, when the Salvation Army was banned, she continued her work underground, saving the lives...

THE HAGUE (AP) - Taliban fighters executed Afghan civilians, including women, who refused to join them during a recent fierce battle against NATO and Afghan government forces in the south, the Dutch military chief said Friday. Citing ''solid reports'' from Afghan police, Gen. Dick Berlijn said Dutch and Afghan forces, supported by Dutch and U.S. air strikes, fended off an attempt by about 500 Taliban fighters to overrun the southern town of Chora last weekend. During the attack, Taliban fighters tried to force local civilians to fight alongside them, ''and killed citizens who refused - they were hauled out of...

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com. Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9. A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions. "These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Dadullah...

THE HAGUE -- If Amsterdam city council bars construction of the Westermoskee mosque, a great demonstration of Turks from throughout Europe will be held. The possibility of this degenerating into violence cannot be ruled out, the Turkish organisation Milli Gorus warns. The controversial Westermoskee in Amsterdam will be built come what may, said Fatih Dag of the Turkish mosque organisation in Trouw newspaper. If the government blocks its building, Milli Gorus will call on Turks throughout the whole of Europe to demonstrate. Dag hopes this would be a peaceful procession, but fears it could get out of hand. "Our people...

I received an e-mail today from Mrs. Irma Haex of Holland. She and her teenage son, Wesley, have adopted the graves of four Americans buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.Irma writes... We do this out of respect for the men who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, it is 62 years ago that the war ended, but most of the Dutch people won’t forget. I thought people here might enjoy knowing that there people like Irma and Wesley Haex, tending the graves of our fallen overseas. _______________________________ Irma Haex at the grave of Sergeant Robert E. Grame,...

THE HAGUE – Freedom Party PVV faction leader Geert Wilders is arguing that all Islamic schools in the Netherlands should be shut down immediately. He says this measure is necessary in order to "protect children against the spread of Islamic doctrine." Wilders writes this in a column that appeared today on the website Nieuwnieuws.nl. "Islam is rapidly pushing our Western civilisation close to the edge of the abyss. We have too much Islam in the Netherlands. Islam is more a violent political ideology than a religion," the MP writes. He admits that he has taken a strong position in the...

SCHAGEN, Netherlands (AP) -- The massive central door in the side of Noah's Ark was thrown open Saturday -- you could say it was the first time in 4,000 years -- drawing a crowd of curious pilgrims and townsfolk to behold the wonder. Of course, it's only a replica of the biblical Ark, built by Dutch creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible. Reckoning by the old biblical measurements, Johan's fully functional ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That's two-thirds the length of a football...

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, April 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Dutch abortion boat has been granted government permission to perform abortions in international waters on women up to 7 weeks pregnant, despite a massive national and international outcry, the Times online reported earlier today. The boat has caused an uproar at home in the Netherlands and abroad. Condemned by governments and pro-life organizations as a propaganda tool for pro-abortion activists, the abortion boat has come under intense criticism for offering to perform abortions on women from countries where the procedure is illegal. Operated by Women on Waves, the abortion boat...

Once dead, now alive Bishops of the world, take note of this article from the ever-excellent Kreuz.net A Church in a Dutch Diocese was going to be suppressed but then traditionalists set themselves to work. The Fraternity of St Peter[s] has been caring for the Church of St Agnes in Amsterdam since December 2006. The Fraternity came at the express with of the Parish Council. The priest of St Agnes, Fr. F. Braam is going into retirement in 2008. The Diocese could not find a successor. The Church was going to be closed. It was for this reason that the...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch police station trying to help Muslim detainees face Mecca for their prayers painted arrows in cells pointing in the wrong direction...

The Utrecht neighbourhood of Ondiep is to be sealed off to outsiders for a second night on Wednesday, following two nights of clashes between youths and riot police, a city council spokesman confirmed. The area has been ringed with fences which will be pulled across all roads later today, closing the area to non-residents. At least 130 people were arrested on Tuesday following a number of incidents in both in the city centre and on the fringes of Ondiep. Police said the arrests included a number of football supporters from FC Utrecht, Rotterdam’s Feyenoord and Amsterdam’s Ajax who had come...

Sarajevo, 2 March: Legal teams from Bosnia-Hercegovina and the Netherlands representing the families of the victims of Srebrenica are expected to file charges at the beginning of April against Holland and the UN for their responsibility for the events in Srebrenica, and demand damages to the tune of 2bn KM [Bosnian marks - 1.345bn dollars], writes today's [Sarajevo daily] Dnevni avaz. The paper said that the lawyers would try to prove that Dutch troops were actively assisting units of the [Bosnian] Serb army. Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 0840 gmt 2 Mar 07 BBC Monitoring LOAD-DATE: March 2,...

Dublin will get a new saint in June when Pope Benedict XVI canonizes a Dutch priest who became a much-loved figure in the Irish capital, the city's archdiocese said Friday. Blessed Charles of Mount Argus, who was born John Andrew Houben in Mustergleeen, the Netherlands, in 1821, joined the Passionist order aged 19. He was the fourth of eleven children born to Peter and Johanna Houben. Dublin's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who warmly welcomed the news, said Blessed Charles was a much loved figure in the city and around Ireland for his devotion to the sick and healing. He joined the...

Female candidate campaigns in mosques By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels Last Updated: 1:58am GMT 23/02/2007 A muslim woman running for public office in the Netherlands has refused to be interviewed or photographed and will only campaign in mosques, sparking new claims of attempts of isolationism among the Islamic community. Ouafaa Abrazi is standing for the Islam Democraten in municipal elections in the Zuid-Holland region, and is the only female candidate on the Islamic list. "She does not want to give interviews and we must also not give her phone number to anyone," said Islam Democrat leader Hasan Kucuk. "She does...

Well, are the inhabitants of the EU prosperous or not? Yes and no. Many Europeans (and Americans as well) would say the US is part poor, part affluent, arguing that wealth is distributed in a very uneven way in that country. However, regarding regional GDP/capita, there probably are even greater differences between the EU citizens than between US Americans (regardless of the reasons to this situation)! For instance, according to the study, Inner London is more than 36 times richer than North Eastern Romania! The article: "Regional GDP per inhabitant in the EU27 GDP per inhabitant in 2004 ranged from...

AMSTERDAM – Faction leader for the Freedom Party Geert Wilders is not considering making any apology to Saudi Arabia for his recent comments on the Koran. He said this on Sunday in response to a report in the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan, which wrote that the Islamic country has complained to the Dutch government about the comments. A spokesperson for the ministry of foreign affairs in The Hague said on Sunday that the Saudi ambassador had in fact done so “informally.” There has not been any official complaint however, he said. The newspaper claims that the Saudi embassy in The Hague...

AMSTERDAM – If Muslims want to stay in the Netherlands, they should tear out half the Koran and throw it away. And they shouldn’t listen to the imam. Faction leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) Geert Wilders said this in an interview with daily newspaper De Pers on Tuesday. He said the holy book of Islam contains “plenty of terrible things.” Wilders said once again that Islam is a violent religion. “If Mohammed lived here today, I would propose he be tarred and feathered as an extremist and driven out of the country,” he said. The politician wants to impress...

An examination of a radical-Islamist terror plot to attack Toronto, featuring insights from police informant Mubin Shaikh, who spent two years in the cell that was planning the attacks. CC, Stereo, Letterboxed Educational Taping Rights: 1 year

AMSTERDAM, Jan 19 - Amsterdam's red-light district will soon get a new attraction: a statue to honour prostitutes around the world. The statue, designed by artist Els Rijerse, will likely be unveiled at the end of March, Dutch news agency ANP reported. "In many countries, prostitutes struggle and people have no respect for them whatsoever. The statue is meant to give all those men and women strength," Mariska Majoor, a former prostitute who commissioned the statue, told ANP. ANP said the statue, made of bronze, shows a woman who confidently looks out into the world.

When the "corporate prayer" movement first started in 1996, few people in Holland took any notice. Why should they have done so? After all, Holland's manifest destiny was to become a fully secularized country, in which prayer was considered at best an irrational but harmless pastime. That was then. Cue forward to 2006, when prayer in the workplace is fast becoming a universally accepted phenomenon. More than 100 companies participate... ...The idea that secularization is the irreversible wave of the future is still the conventional wisdom in intellectual circles here. They would be bemused, to say the least, at a...

Dutch Children’s Video Has Boy Singing about his “Two Real Fathers” If you think we have it bad with aggressive homosexual activism here in the USA (and we do, especially if you live near a big city), then thank God you don’t live in The Netherlands. You won’t believe this Dutch video (with English subtitles) that you can access by clicking the link below. In this video–which appears to be a Dutch equivalent of a staged “Barney” concert (for very young children)–a pre-adolescent boy, Terence, sings earnestly: “I have two fathers, two real fathers.” Hundreds of children in the studio...

18 December 2006, 13:59 A major Russian Orthodox Church’s compound appears in place of a Catholic monastery in HollandMoscow, December 18, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church has purchased the Tichelkerk Catholic monastery compound in Amsterdam for 1,5 million euros. For over a century it was a dwelling place for the Catholic Order Friars Minors, but by the beginning of the 21st century the order grew so poor that it could no longer support the monastery, while the Orthodox Parish of St. Nicholas in Amsterdam expanded so much as to require a new facility, the NTV has reported. As a...

December 14, 2006: Not everyone in the West agrees on how to deal with the threat of Islamic terrorism. This is no more vividly seen than in Afghanistan, where 30,000 NATO troops are deployed against the Taliban and al Qaeda. But not all the NATO troops are allowed to fight in the same way. German, troops are only allowed to operate in areas where there has been no, or not much, Taliban or al Qaeda activity. This is a large area, most of the country, actually. But this has upset Canada, Britain, Holland and the United States, who must do...

Exit polls in today's Dutch parliamentary election predict that the Christian Democrats of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende will remain the largest party with 41 seats in the 150-seat parliament. The governing party would lose three seats in comparison with the last election. The opposition Labour Party looks likely to get 33 seats, a loss of nine. The biggest winner is the left-wing Socialist Party, a former Maoist party which is now expected to be the third largest, rising from nine seats to 25. The conservative VVD party, a member of the governing coalition, is predicted to lose strongly going...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Dutch voters picked a new parliament Wednesday in an election that could determine whether the country's tight immigration rules get even tougher or follow what the opposition calls a more humane path. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende is facing a strong challenge from Wouter Bos, the opposition leader who has hammered the conservatives for what he calls a heartless social policy. Opinion polls swerved wildly in the weeks before the election, making it difficult to predict the outcome. Bos says the first thing he would do if he becomes prime minister is grant citizenship to thousands...

An Islamist explosives expert now in a Northern Ireland prison conducted dummy runs for terror attacks at Dublin and Knock ************************************ A convicted al-Qaeda bomb-maker serving a jail sentence in Northern Ireland carried out dummy runs for a potential terrorist plot at Dublin and Knock airports, The Observer can reveal.Last Tuesday the expelled Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was seen exhorting young British Muslims in an online broadcast from Beirut to target Dublin because he incorrectly believed US troops used the airport as a transit centre on the way to Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it has emerged that key al-Qaeda...