AFP
The Hague
A Dutch former far-right MP and right-hand man of anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders set tongues wagging in the Netherlands on Tuesday after revealing he has converted to Islam.
Freedom Party (PVV) leader Wilders compared the conversion of ex-ally Joram van Klaveren to a "vegetarian working in a slaughterhouse”.
For years Joram van Klaveren fought a relentless campaign in the Lower House against Islam in the Netherlands as a lawmaker for Wilders’ party. At the time, the "hardliner pleaded for banning the burqa and minarets, saying ‘we don’t want any Islam, or at least as little as possible in the Netherlands’,” the daily tabloid Algemeen Dagblad (AD) said.
But the 40-year-old Van Klaveren said he had changed his mind halfway through writing an anti-Islam book. The work "became a refutation of objections non-Muslims have” against the religion, he told the respected NRC daily on Tuesday. "If everything I wrote up to that point is true, and I believe that, then I am a de facto Muslim,” he told the NRC.
Van Klaveren converted to Islam on October 26 last year, the NRC added in the interview piece ahead of the release of Van Klaveren’s book titled: "Apostate: From Christianity to Islam in the Time of Secular Terror.” The former politician who grew up in a Protestant Christian environment said of his conversion that he "has been searching for a long time.” "It feels a bit like a religious homecoming for me,” he told Dutch newspapers. Van Klaveren could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday. What a story... it’s like a vegetarian going to work in a slaughterhouse. I have no words,” Wilders told RTL television news.
"It’s up to him of course. But it’s good that he left the PVV five years ago, otherwise it would have been time for him to go now. "I expect a lot but I didn’t see this coming.” Van Klaveren split with Wilders in 2014 after the PVV leader’s controversial comments that year when asking supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and the Netherlands”.
The Hague
A Dutch former far-right MP and right-hand man of anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders set tongues wagging in the Netherlands on Tuesday after revealing he has converted to Islam.
Freedom Party (PVV) leader Wilders compared the conversion of ex-ally Joram van Klaveren to a "vegetarian working in a slaughterhouse”.
For years Joram van Klaveren fought a relentless campaign in the Lower House against Islam in the Netherlands as a lawmaker for Wilders’ party. At the time, the "hardliner pleaded for banning the burqa and minarets, saying ‘we don’t want any Islam, or at least as little as possible in the Netherlands’,” the daily tabloid Algemeen Dagblad (AD) said.
But the 40-year-old Van Klaveren said he had changed his mind halfway through writing an anti-Islam book. The work "became a refutation of objections non-Muslims have” against the religion, he told the respected NRC daily on Tuesday. "If everything I wrote up to that point is true, and I believe that, then I am a de facto Muslim,” he told the NRC.
Van Klaveren converted to Islam on October 26 last year, the NRC added in the interview piece ahead of the release of Van Klaveren’s book titled: "Apostate: From Christianity to Islam in the Time of Secular Terror.” The former politician who grew up in a Protestant Christian environment said of his conversion that he "has been searching for a long time.” "It feels a bit like a religious homecoming for me,” he told Dutch newspapers. Van Klaveren could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday. What a story... it’s like a vegetarian going to work in a slaughterhouse. I have no words,” Wilders told RTL television news.
"It’s up to him of course. But it’s good that he left the PVV five years ago, otherwise it would have been time for him to go now. "I expect a lot but I didn’t see this coming.” Van Klaveren split with Wilders in 2014 after the PVV leader’s controversial comments that year when asking supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and the Netherlands”.