These two articles indicate Europe is in deep, deep, trouble.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) --
One of the most popular politicians in the Netherlands said Friday the country's democracy is under threat and called for a five-year halt to non-Western immigration in the wake of the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by a suspected Muslim radical.
"We are a Dutch democratic society. We have our own norms and values," right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders told The Associated Press in an interview. "If you chose radical Islam you can leave, and if you don't leave voluntarily then we will send you away. This is the only message possible."
In his first interview with the foreign media since the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov. 2, Wilders said his own life has been repeatedly threatened. He said he has begun living under state protection and has even had to stay away from his own home.
Wilders split with the free-market coalition partner Liberal Party two months ago because it backed the candidacy of predominantly Muslim Turkey for the European Union.
He formed his own conservative party, the Wilders Group, which has one seat in the 150-member parliament. But a recent poll suggested his anti-immigrant message was reverberating through the electorate, and he would win 24 seats if elections were held today -- up from 19 seats before Van Gogh's murder.
Wilders said that without swift, bold action, Islamic fundamentalism will topple the country's democratic system.
"The Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long," he said. "We should not import a retarded political Islamic society to our country. There is nothing to be ashamed of to say this. It's not Islam. I speak out against the facts."
In Brussels, Belgium, European Union leaders met Friday to discuss immigration, one of Europe's most pressing and sensitive issues. EU justice and interior ministers agreed to demand that new immigrants learn the language of their adopted countries and adhere to "European values" to guide them toward better integration.
Even as the number of immigrants arriving in Europe falls due to tougher policies, led by a sharp drop in the Netherlands, Wilders said closing the borders isn't enough. Newcomers should be forced to integrate.
"If in a mosque there is recruitment for jihad, it's not a house of prayer, it's a house of war. If it's not a house of prayer, it should be closed down," he said.
Wilders, known for his radical positions and peroxide-blond hair, has been a member of parliament since 1998. He was born and educated in the southern city Venlo, near the German border.
"I'm very tough on radical Islam. I have the toughest ideas on beating this problem and I'm proud of it. I say nothing wrong. I'm no racist, no anti-Islamist," he said.
Wilders and the police took the death threats more seriously following the slaying of Van Gogh, who had produced a television drama critical of how women are treated in some Muslim societies. The filmmaker was shot and stabbed to death, allegedly by a 26-year-old suspected Islamic extremist who holds Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.
The most recent threats were disclosed when two terror suspects, arrested Nov. 10 after a standoff in which several policemen were wounded by a hand grenade, were charged with threatening Wilders and other politicians, their lawyer said.
The latest video threat broadcast on the Internet -- in Dutch, with Arabic music in the background -- condemns Wilders for insulting Islam and offers the reward of paradise for his beheading.
Wilders' style and cause are reminiscent of Pim Fortuyn, a flamboyant political outsider who put immigration on the national agenda before the 2002 elections. Fortuyn was shot to death by an animal rights activist days before the vote, but major parties since have largely embraced his ideas.
Wilders said he is not opposed to mainstream Islam but is concerned by studies saying 10 percent of the Dutch Muslim population -- or about 100,000 people -- support radical Islamic views.
He cited a report by Dutch intelligence saying recruitment for jihad, or holy war, is taking place in as many as 20 mosques in the Netherlands, and said they should be closed and their imams, or preachers, arrested and deported.
"If we don't do anything ... we will lose the country that we have known for centuries. People don't want the Netherlands to be lost, and this is something that I get angry about and I am going to fight for, to keep the country Dutch," he said.
Hezbollah-linked TV station allowed to broadcast in EU
Fri Nov 19, 2:59 PM ET
PARIS (AFP) - The French public broadcasting regulator authorized an Arabic-language television station close to the Lebanese Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group to transmit programs within the European Union (news - web sites).
AFP/File Photo
The Al-Manar station, well known within the Arabic world, had committed itself in an agreement "not to incite hatred, violence or discrimination based on race, sex, religion or nationality," said the French Audiovisual Council.
Jewish groups had earlier urged French authorities not to grant a licence to the channel to transmit programmes in France after it had put out material criticized for perceived anti-Semitic content.
Following complaints, the audiovisual authority asked Al-Manar to submit a reasoned application to register as a broadcasting organisation.
A top French court in August warned Lebanese-based Al-Manar channel it would curtail its satellite transmissions to France if it did not commit itself to a code of professional conduct.
The State Council, France's highest administrative tribunal, asked the channel to declare its commitment to a charter of journalistic ethics.
The charter is a document agreed with the Audio-Visual Higher Council (CSA), France's broadcasting watchdog, under which the TV channel would commit itself to abide by rules prescribed by the State Council on professional conduct and programme content.
The CSA applied to have Al-Manar transmissions to France suspended because it broadcast a programme a year ago which included particularly vicious anti-Semitic themes, such as the Middle Ages blood libel myth of alleged Jewish ritual killing of children.
Counsel for the television station at the August tribunal hearing admitted Al-Manar had transmitted a programme "about which the entire management was agreed in acknowledging that it was inadmissible."
The US State Department has listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.
Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot called this month for it to be likewise placed on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations in a bid to dry up its financing from Europe.
However Bot acknowledged that there was lack of unanimity on this subject in the European Union.
Some governments make a distinction between Hezbollah as a political party with a dozen members in the Lebanese parliament and a broad programme of social works, and its militant military wing responsible for deadly attacks.
Hezbollah, "the Party of God" formed by Iranian Revolutionary Guards after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, seeks the "liberation" of all occupied Arab lands, including Jerusalem.
The latest EU terrorism list, approved April 2, includes 26 individuals and 25 organizations, including Hamas, another violent anti-Israeli group that carries out both social work and armed attacks.
The blacklist was established late in 2001 following the September 11 attacks in the United States.
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