| Pegida Nederland | |
 | |
| Formation | 11 October 2015 |
|---|---|
| Type | Anti-Islam |
| Location |
|
| Leader | Edwin Wagensveld |
| Affiliations | Fortress Europe |
Pegida Netherlands is the Dutch branch of the German anti-Islamic political movement Pegida. The organisation is led by Edwin Wagensveld.
It had its inaugural rally on 11 October 2015 in Utrecht. Those in attendance included Lutz Bachmann, Siegfried Däbritz, and Tommy Robinson. [2]
Pegida Netherlands is a signatory to the "Prague Declaration" as part of the international Fortress Europe coalition in January 2016. [3] [4] On 20 February 2016 Edwin Wagensveld, leader of Pegida Netherlands, was arrested for provocative behavior during a demonstration in Ede. He was in police custody for an hour. [5] He was arrested for the second time that month on 27 February 2016 at Amsterdam city hall. He was using the Pegida logo, which shows a swastika being thrown into a trash can. The city said, "The use of swastikas will not be tolerated, even if they are included in a protest sign or other form of expression where the National Socialist ideology is rejected, or in any other manner of speech whatsoever". [6]
In 2023, Wagensweld was prosecuted for having teared apart a Quran during a protest, calling it a "fascist book". [7]
Islam is the second largest religion in the Netherlands, after Christianity, and is practised by 5% of the population according to 2018 estimates. The majority of Muslims in the Netherlands belong to the Sunni denomination. Many reside in the country's four major cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht.
Mohammed Bouyeri is a Moroccan-Dutch serving a life sentence without parole in the prison of Nieuw Vosseveld (Vught) for the assassination of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh. A member of the Hofstad Network, he was incarcerated in 2004.
Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician who has led the Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives, having held a parliamentary seat since 1998. In the 2010 formation of the first Rutte cabinet, a minority government of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) – which he left in 2004 – and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Wilders actively participated in the negotiations, resulting in a "tolerance agreement" between the PVV and these parties. He withdrew his party's parliamentary support in 2012, citing disagreements with the cabinet over proposed budget cuts. Wilders is best known for his populist, anti-immigration and criticism of Islam and Euroscepticism (EU), and for his relations to the Kremlin. His views have made him a controversial figure in the Netherlands and abroad. Since 2004, he has been protected at all times by armed police.
The international reaction to Fitna consisted of condemnation from Muslims, several fatwa against Geert Wilders, and attempts by many Islamic countries to censor the film. The Dutch government immediately distanced itself from the film. Several Muslim organizations and political parties organized boycotts against Dutch products.
The trial of Geert Wilders, a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, took place in the Netherlands in 2010 and 2011. Wilders was accused of criminally insulting religious and ethnic groups and inciting hatred and discrimination. He was found not guilty in June 2011.
The Party for Freedom is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. Since the early 2020s, the party has rapidly grown in popularity, gaining significant support for its anti-immigration positions. After the 2023 general elections, it became the largest party in the House of Representatives.
The Al-Fourqaan mosque is a salafi Islamic mosque in which is part of Al-fourqaan Islamic Center in Eindhoven, Netherlands, established in the 1990s.
Joram Jaron van Klaveren is a Dutch politician. As a member of the Party for Freedom he was an MP from 17 June 2010 until 21 March 2014. He subsequently was an independent until his term in office ended on 23 March 2017. He focused on matters of desegregation, employment-to-population ratio, egalitarianism and emancipation. From 24 March 2011 until 11 June 2014, he also was a member of the States-Provincial of Flevoland. He became well-known for anti-Muslim comments. In October 2018, he converted to Islam halfway through writing an anti-Islam book. After becoming a Muslim, he decided to rededicate his book to his search for religiosity and the subsequent conversion to Islam. His book titled Apostate: From Christianity to Islam in times of sécularisation and terror was published in both Dutch and English.
Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, is an English anti-Islam campaigner, convicted criminal and one of the UK’s most prominent far-right activists. He was a political advisor to former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Gerard Batten.
The European Defence League (EDL) is a largely UK-based offshoot of the English Defence League founded by Tommy Robinson which campaigns against what it considers sharia law and itself has various offshoots. The group was set up in October 2010 and held its first demonstration that month in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at the trial of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders.
Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, abbreviated Pegida, is a pan-European, anti-Islam, far-right extremist political movement. German Pegida believes that Germany is being increasingly Islamicised and defines itself in opposition to Islamic extremism.
Lutz Bachmann is the founder of the Pegida movement, a far-right German political organisation linked to the anti-Muslim counter-jihad ideology.
Pegida UK was an anti-Islam group in the United Kingdom established by Tommy Robinson in 2016. It was named after the German group Pegida – Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes.
Anne Marie Dorothy Waters is a far-right politician and activist in the United Kingdom. She founded and led the anti-Islam party For Britain until its dissolution in 2022. She is also the director of Sharia Watch UK, an organisation launched in April 2014. In January 2016, Waters launched Pegida UK in conjunction with activist Tommy Robinson and far-right politician Paul Weston.
DENK is a political party in the Netherlands, founded on a minority rights platform. It is legally registered as "Politieke Beweging Denk".
Rasmus Paludan is a Danish-Swedish politician, lawyer and anti-Islam activist.
Shortly after protests seeking justice for the murder of George Floyd, an African-American who was killed during a police arrest, began in the United States, people in the Netherlands protested to show solidarity with Americans and to demonstrate against issues with police or racism. Vigils and protests of up to thousands of participants took place nationwide.
Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) is a Dutch organization that campaigns against the Zwarte Piet character in the culture of the Low Countries. Zwarte Piet is traditionally part of the annual Christian feast of Sinterklaasavond in the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Dutch Antilles and the Dutch diaspora on the evening of 5 December in the Netherlands and 6 December in Belgium. Saint Nicholas Day is also celebrated in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Europe and the Middle East. In the folklore of the Low Countries, Zwarte Piet is portrayed as the dark-skinned Spanish Moor companion to Sinterklaas.
For Frihed is a Danish organisation that supports free speech, and opposes what it sees as Islamisation and fundamentalist Islam in Denmark. The organisation was originally part of the Pegida movement, and is part of the broader counter-jihad movement.
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