Geert Wilders was interviewed on Australian TV show Dateline, and the interview is already making headlines for his use of the phrase 'retarded Islamic culture'.
GEERT WILDERS, POLITICIAN, PVV: Our culture which is based on Christianity, Judaism and Humanism, is better than the retarded Islamic culture and this is tough to say, but it is true. We should defend who we are and get rid of this cultural relativism because at the end of the day it will kill us.Watch the entire interview here (full transcript also available)
REPORTER: You can be proud of your own culture but why use terms like 'retarded'? I mean it is a deeply offensive term, is it not?
GEERT WILDERS: If it is true, I don't care if people are offended. My aim is not to offend people. We don't have anything against Muslims if people behave according to our laws.
REPORTER: But you do. You do have something against Muslims. How can you say that on one hand, you don't want any of them here, and then say you have got nothing against Muslims? You have got a lot against Muslims.
GEERT WILDERS: No, we don't have. I even acknowledge the fact that the majority of the Muslims in the Western world and certainly also in the Netherlands today, are law-abiding people. But still, the more Islam would come to our free society, the more is the Islamic culture will become dominant and the less freedom we will get.
(...)
GEERT WILDERS: Of course you have to use arguments, and I have a lot of arguments - a lot of facts - it is very difficult to make clear to the people that Islam is not just another leaf on the tree of religions. It is not to be compared with Christianity. It is a violent ideology like communism and fascism and we should deal with it that way. If we don't, at the end of the day, Islam will eat us.
Several more interesting points from the show:
1. Wilders says he's against all immigration from Muslim-majority countries, including Christians and Jews.
2. At about 9:40, the 'man on the street' threatens to kill Wilders: "When Geert Wilders is in Rotterdam, and I see him, he is a dead man"
3. Fatima Lamkarat, a social worker, on the Dutch support for Wilders: "No matter of what you do, it is never enough. You just get fed up with that feeling. Because the message that Holland gives immigrants is you have to learn the language, you have to get an education, you have to get a job. Well, I did that, and still you tell me that I don't belong here."
4. Dateline's final analysis: Though it could make him into a political hero, carrying a criminal charge for hate speech would cause problems for Wilders' plans of a worldwide crusade
5. The mass media likes to make fun of blogs, but at least blogs sometimes check the original source. In this case, RNW simply translated from the Dutch translation of Wilders interview:
