Comment: Islamophobia is a ‘minority’ view

July 7, p. 2

Ben Knapen, the Dutch Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation, spoke to The Jakarta Post’s Tyler Gniewotta at Erasmus Huis in South Jakarta before the opening of an architectural exhibition titled “Life and Work of C.P. Wolff Schoemaker”, celebrating the history of the Dutch architect in Indonesia. Below are excerpts from the interview.

Your comments:

Currently there is too much attention paid to negative influences on Dutch society. Those influences are the result of differences in prosperity and not religion.

Muslim-bashers make use of simple people’s fears, by giving them a clear cause of a problem and a simple solution. They don’t really care about Islam. All they care about his power and influence.

The way to deal with this kind of negativism is to ignore it and focus on the positive. It will outshine the wretched views of Wilders that will wither in the beautiful light of friendship and cooperation between our peoples.

Marc
Groningen