Word: dutch
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...tough to build bridges across such a chasm of mutual suspicion - and much easier to exploit it. Wilders has long played on fears of the enemy within. Only 5% of the Dutch population - around 850,000 people - is Muslim. But Dutch Muslim communities are highly visible, being concentrated in urban areas, and their birthrates outstrip those of the wider community. "Islam wants to dominate every part of life and society," says Wilders. "It does not want to integrate or assimilate...
...Dutch, who pride themselves on their tolerance and inclusive attitudes, have been shocked to discover that many Muslims in the Netherlands feel dispossessed and discriminated against, and that some even empathize with jihadis. As in Britain, where English-born bombers have planned or carried out a series of attacks over the past few years, the sense of alienation in the Muslim community is reflected not just in the terrorists' rage but also in moderate Muslims' readiness to believe conspiracy theories that pin blame for 9/11 and other attacks on Western governments. Dutch citizens, in turn, have become more suspicious...
...relaxed immigration policies have already tightened up since the 2002 election of Jan Peter Balkenende's conservative coalition. The PVV leader proposes going further by halting all immigration from non-Western countries, banning the Koran and deporting any Muslim who breaks the law. His rhetoric recalls Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch politician gunned down in 2002, days before an election that would almost certainly have given him a parliamentary platform to air his hard-line views on immigration. Fortuyn's friend and compatriot Theo van Gogh was working on a film about Fortuyn's assassination when he himself was murdered...
...also proved a potent electoral tool. "[Wilders] says what others don't dare to say," says Gil Timmermans, a 39-year-old car mechanic who voted for the PVV. "I'm not a racist, but if the Muslims get their way, it could be the end of our Dutch way of life." (Read: "Gunned Down...
Geert Wilders Party: Party for Freedom Policies: Focuses on ending immigration from Muslim countries and forcing Muslims already in the Netherlands to become more "Dutch." Would ban the Koran Quote: "It was a speech of appeasement, of ignorance" - Wilders on President Obama's address in Cairo in which he praised "civilization's debt to Islam...