Radio Netherlands Worldwide

As a British born Muslim, living in the Netherlands, I am truly astonished at the remarks Gert Wilders makes. His comments are purely to instigate reactions from the Muslim community who feel personally attacked by his comments. It is ridiculous to suggest that people should be taxed for CHOOSING to wear a headscarf because it is against the so called Dutch values. If his sole purpose is to protect Dutch values, then he should be proposing taxes on American, British and other shows which are broadcast daily in the Netherlands. He should be promoting the Dutch language and imposing taxes on Dutch/British firms such as Shell who conduct their daily businesses in English as opposed to Dutch. Any sensible person can see how ridiculous this would be and how damaging it is to the Dutch economy. His comments are purely to target a specific group, namely Muslims. If Gert Wilders was the Prime Minister, would he discourage multinationals who have their main language as English from setting up in the Netherlands as it is against Dutch values; this is nonsense and would ruin a country I admire. However, every time I hear such stories, my admiration for this country waivers due to the huge amount of support Wilders has gathered in the Netherlands. As for comments from posters regarding the hatred of Islam due to it endorsing Jihad, I wish to point out that only a SMALL minority of so called Muslims endorse terrorism for their own gains. As with any religion, there are different sects and different organisations. Looking back at British history, many of you would be aware of the religious tensions between the Catholics and the Protestants and aware that the IRA had pursued a campaign of terror against the British population, yet we do not see people branding all Christians as terrorists and I would expect the same from every religion. In every cult, group, religion or sect there are bad apples and the actions of these bad apples cannot be equated to the actions of all people in that group. I wish that people would see that the majority of Muslims are against this kind of terrorism and denounce the actions of the minority. Since living in the Netherlands I have closely followed the controversy surrounding Gert Wilders and I agree with the above sentiments that his actions should be afforded as little attention as possible and I am truly ashamed of the British decision to ban him from entering the United Kingdom as it only provides weak, attention seeking people like Gert Wilders further publicity.