"Do you want more or less Islamists in our country?"

Submitted by Robert (United States), Dec 9, 2016 at 07:25

We live in a great county. Our political institutions are so strong
that even racists are permitted to speak and publish the trash and conspiracy garbage.

But that is not so in that country in Europe with a great historical past whose people first colonized New York - way before the British conquered the place.
Geert Wilders asked a crowd at a rally (I believe)
if they wanted more or less Moroccans in their county.
This should remind one of Donald Trump implicitly expressing a desire to limit Mexican in the USA.

People who have a country do not constitute a Race when a reference is made to their Nationality in the narrow sense in which the term implies the country from which they hail. Apparently, under the laws of Netherlands one cannot identify a people by their country without breaking the law. If Trump were to ask if you want more or less Mexicans in the United States he would violate Dutch law if we had such a law. How, such a law here would be unconstitutional.

Geert intends to appeal. Does anyone know the exact legal status under which Geert's remarks were deem illegal?

I wonder if the more politically correct version would have been:
"Do you want more or less Islamists in the Netherlands?"
It seems that a Dutch citizen must be very crafty in framing her question.
Obviously Geert doesn't care about the difference between Islam and Islamists,
and he only is opposed to Moroccans because they are primarily of the Muslim faith.
If asked, he would welcome a Christian or Jewish Moroccan to the Netherlands with open arms.

In the United States there is no constitutional prohibition, as far as I know,
from restricting immigration on the basis of Country or even Religion (perhaps).

Here's the New York Times on the matter:

"Geert Wilders, Dutch Far-Right Leader, Is Convicted of Inciting Discrimination"
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/world/europe/geert-wilders-netherlands-trial.html

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".