Netherlands: "You're guests here"

Netherlands: "You're guests here"

"You're guests here. We have a Dutch culture here, and we want to maintain it. We don't want various influence that whittle down that culture, and that is not going to happen either."

So said PVV parliament member Hero Brinkman Saturday during a debate between several PVV supporters and (mostly Moroccan-Dutch) youth from the Argan youth center in Amsterdam.


This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog - islamineurope.blogspot.com


Brinkman was there because he wanted to establish a youth division for the PVV.

The politician made his statements during a discussion about the question whether the multicultural society enriches the Netherlands.

Another participant replied angrily that Muslims were now in the Netherlands and that they too deserve a place. "You have no more right to your culture than me. Go to hell with your integration."

"The youth of the PV don't want us to integrate, but to assimilate," said another. "What you really want is that we die our hair blond like your leader in the Hague."

One of the young PVV supporters argued during the intense debate that Islam is a threat for Western society and that there are no denominations within this religion which can set root in the Netherlands.

"There is no fundamentalist or moderate version of Islam. Islam is Islam."

Various other participants tried to convince him otherwise.

"I'm a Moroccan. I'm a Muslims. But I'm also afraid of those guys in Saudi Arabia. I also want to just go with my girl to the movies without being whipped," one of them said.

Another invited the PVV supporters to come to his house for dinner. "If you then still say that Islam is not charitable, then I don't know what is."

The criticism of the PVV didn't stop there. One participant said that the party always speaks of Dutch culture, but is itself undermining typical Dutch values like equal treatment.

"They really want to bring about a whole big change."

At the start of the debate, Brinkman was thanked for coming with a Moroccan teapot. He did not seem very thankful. Because, he said, the present came from a tax-payer funded youth center, and thus 'a present from his own pocket'.

"You know our position on this type of cuddly multicultural clubs. We want to abolish them."

Source: NU (Dutch)

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