Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum, David Horowitz’s FrontPage Magazine helped fund Geert Wilders.
Source: Reuters.com
AMSTERDAM/NEW YORK – Anti-Islam groups in America have provided financial support to Dutch politician Geert Wilders, an anti-immigration campaigner who is seeking re-election to the Dutch parliament this week.
While this is not illegal in the Netherlands, it sheds light on the international connections of Wilders, whose Freedom Party is the least transparent Dutch parliamentary group and a rallying point for Europe’s far right.
Wilders’ party is self-funded, unlike other Dutch parties that are subsidised by the government. It does not, therefore, have to meet the same disclosure requirements.
Groups in America seeking to counter Islamic influence in the West say they funded police protection and paid legal costs for Wilders whose party is polling in fourth place before the September 12 election.
Wilders’ ideas – calling for a total halt to non-Western immigration and bans on Muslim headscarfs and the construction of mosques – have struck a chord in mainstream politics beyond the Netherlands. France banned clothing that covers the face in April 2011 and Belgium followed suit in July of the same year. Switzerland barred the construction of new minarets following a referendum in 2009.
The Middle East Forum, a pro-Israeli think tank based in Philadelphia, funded Wilders’ legal defense in 2010 and 2011 against Dutch charges of inciting racial hatred, its director Daniel Pipes said. The Middle East Forum has a stated goal, according to its website, of protecting the “freedom of public speech of anti-Islamist authors, promoting American interests in the Middle East and protecting the constitutional order from Middle Eastern threats”. It sent money directly to Wilders’ lawyer via its Legal Project, Pipes said.
Categories: Crime, Europe, Human Rights, Immigration, Intolerance, Islam, Islamophobia, Israel, Netherlands, Religion, United States
Hell o Money will not be able to buy protection on THE FINAL DAY OF JUDGEMENT.
get in touch with your soul, intangible of course, but so were & are x-rays, gamma rays & most forms of radiation, air cannot be seen , but we (humans: of course , some are just sub-human in human form); breathe it.
why would anyone who ascribes to free speech, feel threatened with death threats, if one has the courage of one’s convictions , one will complete the race to the finishing line (to use but an analogy.
Ipso facto , feeling threatened implies that one is internally an insecure individual & needs to take cover.
of geerd you can feel free to say , do as you please because to me personally you , like most individuals allow your ignorance to precede you.
In fact villfying , degrading Islaam & the Noble Quraan , then to me you are simplistic, because you are not challenging any Muslim , but THE CREATOR.
i suggest (free advice ) you obtain first hand knowledge of THE QURAAN (from cover to cover & read verse in context; free advice again ;IT IS NOT ONLY WHAT ONE READS , BUT HOW ONE READS WHAT ONE READS ; WHETHER ONE HAS THE ABILITY ABSTRACTLY & TO EXTRACT THE ESSENCE OF ANY MESSAGE ) , before shooting your mouth off; for a quest for greatness in your breast or for 5 mins of cheap fame.
Perhaps you were ignored as a child. (speculation i know, but just a idle thought); that may be why you feel you need to make your mark in the world or may be a carefully planned political ploy.
From an old , wise , Muslim woman (south african)
I second you Ms. Fawzia Bayat. Well said!.