Dutch party’s Islamophobic video sparks outrage

A political campaign video by a far-right Dutch party that was broadcast on state-run television has sparked outrage over its racist and Islamophobic content.

The Netherlands’ state-television NPO aired the campaign video of the country’s Party for Freedom’s (PVV) which calls for "de-Islamization of the Netherlands".

"A demographic tsunami from Africa [is coming] to The Netherlands," the video asserts.

The video clip calls for closing the borders to refugees and says, "More Islam causing intolerance, oppression, and terrorism. For this reason, PVV says stop. Close the borders. And de-Islamize The Netherlands."

Human rights activist Oscar Benjamin told Anadolu Agency that the right-wing PVV's leader Geert Wilders aimed at spreading fear and hatred through such hostile messages.

According to Benjamin, the video is similar to anti-Jew propaganda movies made before World War II.

"The similarities cannot be ignored. In the old movies, the Jews were shown as dangerous. Now the Africans and Muslims are shown as dangerous," he said.

Rabbi Lody van de Kamp described Wilders’ ideology as "a copy of Nazi Germany".

Social media users also reacted against the anti-Islamic video on the Internet.

Human rights activist Ewout van den Berg said on Twitter that the PVV’s film had "exactly the same images" with a Nazi propaganda film "The Eternal Jews" from 1940. Berg also shared captions from the two videos.

Last month, Wilders canceled a planned anti-Islam cartoon contest that would depict Prophet Mohammad.

In a statement, he said the contest, which was expected to take place in the Dutch parliament, was canceled due to "security reasons".

Wilders, known for his anti-Islam stance, announced the contest in June.

The decision raised criticism across Muslim states as physical depictions of God or Prophet Mohammad are forbidden in Islam.