The Leading Dutch Political Party Declares: Close all Mosques, Ban the Koran

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"The Party for Freedom - Time for change - Enough is enough!"

A few days ago, the Party for Freedom (PVV) of the Netherlands, led by Geert Wilders published its political platform for the 2017 Dutch parliamentary elections. The platform contains 11 points, most of which are standard or at least unsurprising for a contemporary right of center European political party. For example, it calls for lower income taxes, additional monies for defense and the police and an exit from the EU. However, the first of the 11 points stands out: 

1. De-islamize the Netherlands

• Zero asylum seekers and no immigrants anymore from Islamic countries: close the borders
• Withdraw all asylum residence permits which have already been granted for specific periods, close the asylum centers
• No Islamic headscarves in public functions
• Prohibition of other Islamic expressions which violate public order
• Preventive detention of radical Muslims
• Denaturalization and expulsion of criminals with a dual nationality
• Jihadists who went to Syria will not be allow to return to the Netherlands
• Close all mosques and Islamic schools, ban the Koran

That's right, the current leading party in the polls doesn't merely want, say, a freeze in Muslim immigration - it wants to roll back Islam entirely. To repeat the last bullet point:

• Close all mosques and Islamic schools, ban the Koran

It's important to note that while current polls have the PVV winning more parliamentary seats than any other party, the current estimated number of seats it would win - perhaps 36 - is only a quarter of the total seats. Thus, the PVV would have to participate in a coalition in order to govern. Whether such a coalition could be formed, and what would happen to the above element of the platform within any ruling coalition is anyone's guess. In any case, I suspect that most analysts do not see the Dutch government, say, closing all mosques within a year's time.

But very clearly, the political situation in Europe, especially regarding Islam is quite volatile. Additional mass-terror attacks or assassinations of anti-Islam figures (the Netherlands have already had two of them) could change things.

More to the point, I believe the strategy of Wilders and the PVV is to put "de-Islamization" explicitly on the table, making it in a certain sense "real," however radical or unlikely it might now seem. 

In a speech a few months ago, Wilders himself noted how this was precisely what Ronald Reagan did in 1980. Reagan rejected the policy of "containment" towards communism that had been embraced by both Democrats and Republicans for a generation. Or as Reagan is once reputed to have said: "Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."

People laughed at that, or accused Reagan of being a warmonger who would start World War III. Less than a decade later, the Berlin wall came down.

We won.

Could it happen again?