"We have increased concerns on the rapid increase in the Muslim population in the Netherlands and EU-member countries," said the parliamentary question asked by Wilders -- the leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) -- and Sietse Firtsma and addressed to Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Eberhard van der Laan, the minister in charge of immigration.News stories claiming that the number of Muslims is increasing in Europe frequently find room in the media. Far-right groups, racists and politicians feeding on xenophobic sentiments maintain that Europe is becoming more and more Islamic. They give such weird estimates that it is impossible to reconcile them with math or futuristic predictions or social science theories. In an interview he gave to the British Daily Telegraph, Wilders refers to a news story claiming that "Islam wants to dominate our society." Muslims give birth to more children, and their population increases more quickly. If this is the case, this must have correspondence in political language: Wilders does not mince his word and shows the "ways to counter this danger" to the government: The government should immediately close the borders against immigration from Muslim countries. "We would stop immigration from Muslim countries and close Islamic schools..."
Zaman newspaper reports on this story and adds: "The PVV currently has nine seats in the 150-seat Dutch House of Representatives. However, according to recent polls, it may command about 30 seats in the Dutch parliament after the next elections, and become the second largest party after the Christian Democrats" (Aug. 12, 2009). In other words, we need to give some serious thought to this issue.
The Daily Telegraph's news story to which Wilders had referred had such provocative language that it was obvious it was written with the sole purpose of creating disappointment among Western readers. According to an article in the British paper dated Aug. 13 "Muslim Europe: the demographic time bomb transforming our continent," "Britain and the rest of the European Union are ignoring a demographic time bomb: a recent rush into the EU by migrants, including millions of Muslims, will change the continent beyond recognition over the next two decades, and almost no policy-makers are talking about it."
Of course, these provocative news and warnings must correspond to something in practice. In politics, right-wing and racist parties are gathering strength. Yet, its manifestations in daily life are becoming more and more difficult to be concealed. Remember some of the recent cases:
Egyptian Marwa El-Sherbini was stabbed to death during an appeal case being heard at the Dresden State Court in Germany on July 1, 2009. Marwa played for the Egyptian women's handball team and was a chemist. She had arrived in Germany two years ago, and was killed before the eyes of the judge, the prosecutor, the claimant lawyer, her husband, and her three-year-old son. Marwa was the first victim of the struggle for freedom of religion and conscience embodied in the headscarf in Europe.
On Tuesday, Arzu Çakmakçı Erbaş, 33, the owner of a childcare center in Amsterdam, was stabbed to death by unknown assailants. On the same day, Mikail Tekin, who was detained in Belgium, was beaten to death by prison guards.
Europe is traveling toward no good end. The specter of the Holocaust is haunting it again. The real danger is not the coexistence of diverse practitioners of religions, but the return of this specter.
