Netherlands: Voting in headscarves against PVV
Dutch municipal elections are today. The PVV, Geert Wilders' party is participating in the municipal elections in the Almere and the Hague. In both places they're expected to win top places.
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A group of teachers and students in the Hague decided to protest Wilders' proposal to ban headscarves in municipal buildings and associations by urging voters, men and women, to wear headscarves when they come to vote. The idea was started by several teachers and spread fast.
A spokesperson for the group stressed that this is not a demonstration but rather a 'courteous action', and that they're not demonstrating against Wilders personally, but against the idea of banning headscarves.
They say that headscarves are not exclusively Muslim and that Brigitte Bardot also wore headscarves in the 1960s.
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Hanneke Groenteman, a Dutch journalist, urges all women in Almere (where the PVV is participating) and in the Netherlands to wear a headscarf to the polling stations, in order to make a statement against the Party of Freedom. whom she says is about freedom only by name and actually hinders the freedom of others. Her request was published on the Joop site, an opinion site of the VARA broadcaster.
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Jos Baijens, a Dutch-language teacher in Eindhoven, decided to wear a headscarf in protest of the PVV. He hopes this would make people think about 'how ridiculous it is to want to ban headscarves in the Netherlands in the year 2010". Baijens also said that we should build a tolerant, free and safe society, and Wilder's way of reaching that goal is not the way to do it.
He says he asked Muslim scholars who told him it's not a problem for him to walk about with a headscarf.
His school has meanwhile banned him from walking with a headscarf in school, saying that the school is not a platform for his political views.
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In other elections news:
1. A group of Muslims is calling on people not to vote for Ahmed Marcouch (Labor), the mayor of the Slotervaart district of Amsterdam. Marcouch says the group is a radical one, and thinks it might be related to the voting advice of Hague imam Fawaz, who said that Muslims should vote for politicians who do not insult Muslims and who want to serve Islam. The letter sent by the group warns Muslims of voting for 'wolves in sheep's clothing', regardless of whether the party has Moroccan, Turkish or Arab leaders. The letter also says that while the PVV is openly against Islam, the Labor party is too, since it wants to change Islam.
2. An Islam Democrats candidate attacked another man after prayers at the As-Soenna mosque, during a fight about missing elections brochures. The man suffered a broken hand. The head of the party, Dilaver Delikaya, said that if this really happened, there would be consequences.
Sources: AD 1, 2, 3; Joop; Telegraaf (Dutch), h/t NRP
Dutch municipal elections are today. The PVV, Geert Wilders' party is participating in the municipal elections in the Almere and the Hague. In both places they're expected to win top places.
------------------
A group of teachers and students in the Hague decided to protest Wilders' proposal to ban headscarves in municipal buildings and associations by urging voters, men and women, to wear headscarves when they come to vote. The idea was started by several teachers and spread fast.
A spokesperson for the group stressed that this is not a demonstration but rather a 'courteous action', and that they're not demonstrating against Wilders personally, but against the idea of banning headscarves.
They say that headscarves are not exclusively Muslim and that Brigitte Bardot also wore headscarves in the 1960s.
------------------
Hanneke Groenteman, a Dutch journalist, urges all women in Almere (where the PVV is participating) and in the Netherlands to wear a headscarf to the polling stations, in order to make a statement against the Party of Freedom. whom she says is about freedom only by name and actually hinders the freedom of others. Her request was published on the Joop site, an opinion site of the VARA broadcaster.
------------------
Jos Baijens, a Dutch-language teacher in Eindhoven, decided to wear a headscarf in protest of the PVV. He hopes this would make people think about 'how ridiculous it is to want to ban headscarves in the Netherlands in the year 2010". Baijens also said that we should build a tolerant, free and safe society, and Wilder's way of reaching that goal is not the way to do it.
He says he asked Muslim scholars who told him it's not a problem for him to walk about with a headscarf.
His school has meanwhile banned him from walking with a headscarf in school, saying that the school is not a platform for his political views.
------------------
In other elections news:
1. A group of Muslims is calling on people not to vote for Ahmed Marcouch (Labor), the mayor of the Slotervaart district of Amsterdam. Marcouch says the group is a radical one, and thinks it might be related to the voting advice of Hague imam Fawaz, who said that Muslims should vote for politicians who do not insult Muslims and who want to serve Islam. The letter sent by the group warns Muslims of voting for 'wolves in sheep's clothing', regardless of whether the party has Moroccan, Turkish or Arab leaders. The letter also says that while the PVV is openly against Islam, the Labor party is too, since it wants to change Islam.
2. An Islam Democrats candidate attacked another man after prayers at the As-Soenna mosque, during a fight about missing elections brochures. The man suffered a broken hand. The head of the party, Dilaver Delikaya, said that if this really happened, there would be consequences.
Sources: AD 1, 2, 3; Joop; Telegraaf (Dutch), h/t NRP
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