One of the most popular politicians in the Netherlands said Friday the country’s democracy is under threat and called for a five-year halt to non-Western immigration in the wake of the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by a suspected Muslim radical.
In his first interview with the foreign media since the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov. 2, Wilders said his own life has been repeatedly threatened. He said he has begun living under state protection and has even had to stay away from his own home.
Wilders said that without swift, bold action, Islamic fundamentalism will topple the country’s democratic system.
“The Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long,” he said. “We should not import a retarded political Islamic society to our country. There is nothing to be ashamed of to say this. It’s not Islam. I speak out against the facts.”
Wilders said he is not opposed to mainstream Islam but is concerned by studies saying 10 percent of the Dutch Muslim population — or about 100,000 people — support radical Islamic views.
He cited a report by Dutch intelligence saying recruitment for jihad, or holy war, is taking place in as many as 20 mosques in the Netherlands, and said they should be closed and their imams, or preachers, arrested and deported.
“If we don’t do anything … we will lose the country that we have known for centuries. People don’t want the Netherlands to be lost, and this is something that I get angry about and I am going to fight for, to keep the country Dutch,” he said.
