Dutch PM Rutte slams Wilders rap video execution

AFP

The Hague

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said yesterday that he was “disgusted” by a music video depicting a jihadist-style execution of controversial anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders.

The video, posted on YouTube by Dutch-Lebanese rapper Hozny, comes days after the outspoken Wilders said that the city of The Hague “could do with less Moroccans”.

Rutte, whose centre-right VVD party competes with Wilders’ PVV for votes, told the NOS public broadcaster that the video was “revolting, dreadful”.

“Words fail me when some kind of idiot posts videos like these. We are an open democracy and Geert Wilders ... should be able to do his job openly,” Rutte said.

In the video, entitled Geertje, a derogatory diminutive of Wilders’ first name, a wigged actor depicting the platinum-haired politician is abducted by two masked gunmen.

At the end of the clip for the song – which tells the story of Wilders’ political career and his comments about Islam – masked gunmen force the actor to kneel in front of a camera with a green sheet in the background as seen in many abduction videos in the Middle East.

A shot is heard as the video fades out.

Performing in Dutch, the rapper sings he’s not doing “it” for himself, but for the “girls wearing headscarves” and “the young men looking for work and bread”.

“Geertje, Islam consists of 2.1bn (people) ... nothing will help if they come to get you ... expect it with your hateful stories,” Hozny raps.

Wilders is often reviled among immigrant communities for his fiery anti-Islamist rhetoric.

The last two weeks again saw the politician campaign on an anti-Islam programme in two Dutch cities where his Party for Freedom (PVV) are contesting today’s local government elections.

Wilders, who has been under 24-hour police protection for a number of years, said that he would lodge a complaint with police over the video, which he said was an incitement to violence.

In 2008, Wilders released a documentary film called Fitna which depicted the 2001 and 2004 attacks on New York and Madrid interspersed with phrases from the Qur’an. The film drew fury in Muslim countries.

In 2011 he was acquitted on hate speech charges by a Dutch court, after being accused of spreading racial animosity and discrimination against Muslims.

Some observers said this week that Wilders may have overstepped the mark with his comment about Moroccans, apparently targeting a specific ethnic group, and rights groups have said they will file complaints.