Job Cohen’s decision to step down as Labour leader boosted the party’s performance by two seats in the latest Maurice de Hond opinion poll published on Sunday. At the same time, the anti-Islam PVV lost two seats, after gaining four the previous week on the back of its website to […]
A city councillor in Almere has become the latest representative of the anti-immigration PVV to leave the party, citing the way the party deals with others as the main reason. ‘The tone does not fit in with my way of working,’ Marissa Visser told news agency ANP. ‘I have kind […]
Geert Wilders has a love-hate relationship with the press, the Volkskrant writes. The PVV leader is like the prettiest girl in the class, scathing one minute, coy the next. Or it is all a clever ploy? ‘Wilders hardly ever gives interviews, his party refuses to engage in discussion but dominates the political […]
In a letter to his Afghan counterpart, President Barack Obama has apologised for the burning of copies of the Qur’an by US troops in Bagram. Afghans have been demonstrating for days against the latest violation of the holy Islamic book. A Dutch defence trainer says teaching soldiers about the sensitivities […]
Several museums in Istanbul are holding major exhibitions of famous Dutch paintings to mark 400 years of diplomatic relations between Turkey and the Netherlands. Ties between the two countries go back to 1612, when Cornelis Haga presented his credentials to Sultan Ahmet I as the first ambassador the Dutch Republic […]
“I will tell you the truth about the fight between us and Jews who are the enemies of God and the descendants of apes and pigs.” That is the correct translation of a statement the controversial British-Palestinian Muslim cleric Haitham al-Haddad made in 2001, Arabic-speaking journalists at Radio Netherlands Worldwide […]
Amsterdam’s VU University has cancelled a symposium due to be attended by a controversial British-Palestinian Islamic law expert following protests from MPs and Jewish groups. Sheik Haitham al-Haddad had been invited to attend two days of discussion on the position of Islamic academics in the west but the event has […]
Islamic scholar Haitham al-Haddad should be barred from entering the Netherlands, a majority of Dutch MPs has said. Saudi-born Mr al-Haddad, who lives and works in London, has been invited to a symposium at Amsterdam’s Free University on Friday and Saturday. MP Joel Voordewind – of the small Christian Union […]
When a country threatens to ban Dutch tulips, you know something is wrong. That’s just what’s happening now, as Poland and other Eastern European countries express their anger about a Dutch website. Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party has set up a website calling for Dutch people to anonymously register their complaints […]
An British expert in Islamic law who has reportedly described Jews as ‘the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs’ should be banned from the Netherlands, MPs said on Wednesday. Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad, who sits on Britain’s Islamic Sharia Council, is due to attend a symposium organised […]
An British expert in Islamic law who has reportedly described Jews as ‘the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs’ should be banned from the Netherlands, ChristenUnie MPs said on Tuesday. Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad, who sits on Britain’s Islamic Sharia Council, is due to attend a symposium […]
The internet has become a powerful catalyst for international violent jihad, according to a new report from the Dutch security service AIVD. The organisation says it expects online jihadism to become a ‘crucial factor’ in the threat to the Netherlands and to other Western countries over the next few years. In particular, […]
The influence of the Taliban is not on the increase in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, where the Netherlands is conducting a police-training mission, says Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal. His statement is based on all available information. He also knows of no information to suggest that Talban units have infiltrated parts of […]
A website set up by the anti-immigration PVV to report problems with central and eastern Europeans in the Netherlands is an ‘open call to intolerance’, Europe’s justice commissioner Viviane Reding said on Friday evening. ‘The PVV website completely goes against European principles,’ Reding is quoted as saying by the Volkskrant. ‘In […]
A portrait of a veiled woman cradling a wounded relative in her arms, taken in Yemen by Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda for The New York Times, has won this year’s top World Press Photo prize. The photograph, taken on 15 October, captured a moment in the conflict in Yemen when demonstrators […]
Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration PVV party has launched a new website where people can report complaints about central and eastern European immigrants in the Netherlands. ‘Do you have problems with people from central and eastern Europe? Have you lost your job to a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other eastern European? We […]
A genocide against Christians is going on in the Muslim world. That’s according to the Somali-born former Dutch MP and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Newsweek. According to Ms Hirsi Ali, since the Arab spring, Western governments and media have too often portrayed Muslims as heroes or victims, and they […]
Six specialised euthanasia teams consisting of one doctor and one nurse will begin making house calls in the Netherlands next month. Right to Die NL (NVVE) says the teams will visit people who want to end their lives and are eligible for euthanasia under Dutch law, but whose wishes are being […]
“It’s possible for governments to walk and chew gum at the same time.” That’s Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth’s advice to the Dutch government when it comes to pressuring other governments on human rights abuses, while at the same time promoting trade with that same country. Tolerance As for […]
Amsterdam police chief Bernard Welten will not order his officers to arrest women wearing a burqa when the government introduces a ban, he implied during a tv show. Police officers should always be sensible, Welten said. ‘I do not always consider myself an instrument of the government who should immediately […]