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Ban Koran like Mein Kampf, says Dutch MP

By Bruno Waterfield
Last Updated: 9:09am BST 09/08/2007

The Koran should be banned as a “fascist book” alongside Mein Kampf because it urges Muslims to kill non-believers, says Dutch populist MP Geert Wilders.

The leader of the far-right Freedom Party, which holds nine of the Dutch parliament's 150 seats has called for the ban after an alleged Islam inspired attack on a Labour councillor who had renounced the Muslim faith.

Mr Wilders claims that the Koran “calls on Muslims to oppress, persecute or kill Christians, Jews, dissidents and non-believers, to beat and rape women and to establish an Islamic state by force”.

"Ban this wretched book like Mein Kampf is banned!,” he wrote in yesterday's De Volkskrant newspaper.

The call to treat the Koran in the same way as Adolf Hitler's biography, which has been banned by the Dutch for over 60 years, is the latest in a long line of Islam controversies sparked by Mr Wilders, who lives under tight security after murder attempts by suspected Islamist terrorists.

Els Lucas, a Dutch lawyer, has filed a compliant to the country's prosecutor demanding action against Mr Wilders for “insulting a section of the community”.

"I think he has gone too far and it is unseemly that a member of parliament expresses himself like this,” she said.

The offence is punishable with a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a fine of up to £11,300.

But Ayhan Tonca, chairman of the Dutch Muslim Contact Group argues that Mr Wilders should be ignored.

”This is a ridiculous idea. There is not much news at the moment so he is trying to create some,” he said.

Ban Koran like Mein Kampf, says Dutch MP (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=JVX1QOW1CA2D5QFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/08/09/wkoran109.xml)

I'm surprised the muslims have not already killed Geert Wilders.

Death Threats Greet Dutch Lawmaker's Call to Ban the Koran
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
August 10, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - A Dutch lawmaker under fire for urging that the Koran be banned in his country says he will press ahead with the proposal, and submit it in the form of a parliamentary resolution next month.

Geert Wilders of the right-wing Freedom Party told Cybercast News Service that since calling for a ban -- in a letter published Wednesday in the newspaper De Volkskrant -- he had received death threats and criticism, "but fortunately also many positive responses from voters."

In his letter, published under the headline "Enough is enough: Ban the Koran," Wilders called the Koran a "fascist" text that has "no place in our constitutional state." He said some verses instruct Muslims "to oppress, persecute or kill Christians, Jews, dissidents and non-believers, to beat and rape women and to establish an Islamic state by force."

The Koran, like Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, should be banned in the Netherlands, he said.

The letter drew a swift response from the Dutch government. Elle Vogelaar, the minister for integration and housing, called it "an insult to the majority of Muslims in the Netherlands and abroad who reject calls to hate and violence."

"It has to be perfectly clear that banning the Holy Koran in the Netherlands is not up for discussion for this government and will not be up for discussion in future," she said.

Two lawyers have filed complaints against Wilders, accusing him of violating Dutch law with his statements.

The Iranian embassy in The Hague issued a statement urging Dutch politicians to take a stand against forces threatening to divide society, and Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement that Wilders' comments "reflect total ignorance of the substance of Islam and its precepts, applied by an overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world."

Wilders, whose new party holds nine of the 150 seats in the country's Second Chamber, the lower house of parliament, acknowledged that it would be an uphill battle to win majority support.

Even so, he told Cybercast News Service, "it is my duty as a parliamentarian to put forward ideas as I see them, both inside and outside parliament. In fact, we will have a parliamentary debate with the government in the beginning of September and I will put forward my proposal in parliament than as well [in the form of a resolution]."

The Netherlands is believed to have the second-largest per-capita Muslim population in western Europe, after France. About six percent of the population - one million out 16 million total - is Muslim, mostly of Turkish and Moroccan origin.

The country, long renown for its liberalism, has grappled increasingly in recent years with radical Islam, and inter-communal tensions worsened when a Dutch-Moroccan extremist in 2004 shot and stabbed to death Theo Van Gogh, a controversial filmmaker critical of Islamism.

Other critics of Islam threatened with death include Somalia-born Dutch lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who ultimately moved to the United States, and Wilders himself.

Last weekend an Iranian-born Dutch politician who recently set up a support group for people who have renounced Islam was violently attacked by three Muslims, although he was not hurt. Ehsan Jami, whose advisor said it was the third such incident, is now under police protection. Apostasy is punishable by death in some Muslim societies.

Wilders said it was the attack on Jami that prompted him to write his letter.

"It's terrible to see how naive and silent and politically correct the other political parties are about the biggest problem I believe the Netherlands, Europe and the West faces today, [Islamization]," he said.

Wilders expressed optimism, however, that the message was getting through. He noted that his party won nine seats in parliament last November, but that opinion polls today give it enough support to hold between 12 and 17 seats.

"The battle certainly is not lost. I am sure many, many Dutch voters share my views," Wilders said. "I will continue to fight.

Wilders' Freedom Party is known for favoring restriction on immigration, particularly from non-Western countries. He has tried on several occasions to have the wearing of the burqa outlawed, but without success.

Last month, integration minister Vogelaar caused a stir when she said the Netherlands should in the future be home to a "Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition."

A Dutch-Moroccan group praised her for her "courage," but other politicians objected, and Wilders said the minister should resign.

In an opinion survey last week, 56 percent of Dutch adult respondents rejected Vogelaar's remark.

The chairman of the country's largest Muslim group, the Contact Body for Muslims and Government, did not respond to invitations to comment for this story.

This is not the first time critics of Islam have called for the Koran to be banned.

In 1985, a Hindu in India petitioned the Calcutta High Court to have the book banned in that country, arguing that it incited violence, promoted enmity between different religious communities, and denigrated the beliefs of non-Muslim religions in India.

A footnote to the petition provided lists of Koranic suras that the applicant said insulted other religions, promoted hatred and incited violence. The court threw out the petition on a technicality, according to published accounts.

Death Threats Greet Dutch Lawmaker's Call to Ban the Koran (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200708/INT20070810b.html)

Personally I think banning the Koran is a great idea, as mentioned above Islam does call for trouble to the average American. Some of the islamic verses tell muslims to oppress, persecute, kill Christians, Jews, all non-believers. To beat, rape and enslave women and establish an islamic state by force.

It really is too bad islam cannot be banned in the United States, this cult is allowed by the Bill of Rights. If there was ever a threat to America, it is by islam.

I don't have a lot of time at the moment to go into this in-depth. The only reason the teachings of the Koran is allowed by the Bill of Rights is that it is recognized as a religion. However it is a so called religion that is in direct contrast to the Bill of Rights and therefore is actually not permitted. The koran does not permit freedom of speech, it does not permit other beliefs including those of atheists. It can be shown that it is in direct contrast to much of the rest of the Constitution as it reads in the koran and as it it taught by the most well accepted and knowledgeable imam. For that reason it could easily be banned in the US. Unfortunately to many don't know what the koran actually teaches accepting it only under the pretext of it being a religion and nothing else.