DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - NETHERLANDS / UMMAH: GEERT WILDERS SPEAKS, SAUDIS DEMAND APOLOGIES, GEERT SAYS THE SAUDIS ARE MAD

Geert Wilders responds to Saudi demands for an apology:

Wilders stands by anti-Islam comments
Monday 19 February 2007

Anti-immigration MP Geert Wilders said on Sunday he had no intention of apologising to Saudi Arabia for recent comments he made about the Koran. A foreign affairs ministry spokesman told ANP there had been informal contacts from the Saudi ambassador to the Netherlands but no official complaint had been made.

'Are they mad?,' Wilders told ANP. 'It is a scandal that a country without freedom of speech tries to teach me a lesson.'

In an interview with newspaper De Pers last week, Wilders said Moslims should tear out half of the Koran if they wanted to stay in the Netherlands. There were 'enough terrible things' in the book, Wilders said.

Outgoing foreign minister Ben Bot has said that he regretted Wilder's statement, which was not good for the Netherlands' reputation abroad.

On Saturday, Wilders told the Volkskrant that he was 'not happy' that there would soon be two Moslims in the cabinet. 'I would rather there were not,' he said.

It was reported that the Saudi ambassador had said the following (it appears to be paraphrased by the reporter):

...

Riyadh- Saudi ambassador Waleed al-Khareejy demanded Sunday that a Dutch right-wing politician apologize and retract remarks made last week and deemed insulting to Islam and its holy book.

A leader of the conservative Dutch Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, had told the press that half of the Koran should be torn and thrown away.

He also lashed out at the Prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam,describing Islam as a "violent" religion.

Al-Khareejy said an apology was "necessary" and that Wilders had to withdraw his statements.

However, the ambassador seemed reluctant to attract media, sayingthat the embassy would rather follow up the issue "away from thepress."

...


The comments made by Geert Wilders that began this kerfuffle were:

...

'Islam is a violent religion. If Mohammad lived here today I could imagine chasing him out of the country tarred and feathered as an extremist,' Wilders told De Pers daily in an interview.

Wilders, who is seen as an heir to murdered populist Pim Fortuyn and whose new party won nine seats out of the 150 in parliament in November elections, has warned of a 'tsunami of Islamisation' in a country home to 1 million Muslims.

'I know that we're not going to have a Muslim majority in the next couple of decades, but it is growing,' he said.

'You no longer feel that you're living in your own country. There is a battle under way and we must defend ourselves. There will soon be more mosques than churches here.'

...

Thanks to UmmahNewsLinks for bringing my attention to the story about Geert Wilders' response to Saudi demands.


Pertinent Links:

1) Wilders stands by anti-Islam comments

2) Saudi envoy insists Dutch politician retract anti-Islam remarks

3) Geert Wilders search of American Infidel

4) UmmahNewsLinks.com