Bashy Quraishy, 5 September 2009

on: We Dont Want to Establish a Muslim Republic in the Netherlands, Interview with Henny Kreeft

There is nothing wrong with the notion that people fight for their rights through a special interest party in a society where main stream parties either neglect issues important to ethnic and religious minorities or take minority votes for granted.There are many examples of single issue political parties.

Having said that it is important that such parties are inclusive and do not base their manifesto on a religion but on human rights, religious freedom and equality under the law. There are many prejudices in all most all European countries concerning Islam and Muslim communities but the answer is not to have a political party for Muslims like NMP but for all ethnic and religious minorities who together face racism, discrimination and xenophobia on daily basis.

By the way, Henny Kreeft's statement: "Don't be afraid – we don't want to establish a Muslim republic in the Netherlands" is very childish because most Dutch people already know that such ideas come from Islamophbic politicians and not from Muslim communities. I would advise him not to make an issue out of nothing.