Sometimes it seems politicians will do anything to receive a few extra votes. In the same week in which yet another rightwing-populist movement was founded in the Netherlands, the Freedom Party ( PVV, led by Geert Wilders, who is mostly known for his crusade against Islam and his Mozart-like hairstyle ) tried to grab the headlines with an offensive aimed at a sandwich containing vegetables and halal kebab. According to the PVV-MP Dion Graus the restaurant of the Dutch Parliament should not be allowed to sell any halal products, because such products are obtained “ from a slaughtering method that is unfriendly towards and unworthy of animals ”. It was clear that with his attack the honorable Mr Graus – who in the past has been accused of, among other things, abusing his pregnant wife, though none of the accusations led to prosecution or conviction – had more than just the well-being of animals in mind, when he openly expressed his disappointment that “ the islamization of our country has also reached the menu of our parliament ”. A visitor to the website of the Dutch daily De Telegraaf rightly remarked: “Does(n’t) the PVV have any other subjects to deal with?”

I might be mistaken, but as far as I know it has never been proven conclusively that animals prefer to be brought into the next world by non-kosher or non-halal means. Jews and Muslims clearly have more compassion for pigs and rabbits than the average butcher or poulterer. Slaughtering is a ghastly business, you do not have to be a vegetarian to realize that. But that is not what all this is about, obviously. Never did we hear or see Geert Wilders, neither when he was an MP for the Liberal Party nor after he founded the PVV, protest against hunting, , boxing calves, battery cages for chickens, or other indigenously Dutch hobbies and business sectors that are very unfriendly towards and unworthy of animals. Last week’s attack was just another battle in the jihad, by Wilders and his party, against everything that is somehow related to Islam. If halal slaughter was a voodoo-ritual or one of the religious rules for hindus, the PVV probably would not pay any attention to it.

When Geert Wilders was still an MP for the Liberal Party I interviewed him here in Haifa, during an election rally for the Dutch community in Israel. I did not know him then, and I got the impression that he was interested in the Middle-East not only because of his hatred for Haman ( Muslims and Arabs ) but also because of a certain love for Mordechai ( Israel and the Jewish people ). In the meantime incidents like last week’s have corrected that impression. Once again it turns out that when ultra-rightwing populists have sympathies for Jews and/or Israel, that sympathy mainly stems from a the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-(temporary)-friend approach. The already infamous remarks by Ann Coulter in Donny Deutsch’s The Big Idea are further proof of that.

The same persons who want to limit or ban halal slaughter often have it in for kosher slaughter as well. There is no doubt that some of those activists are true animal lovers, but I find it extremely hard to avoid the impression that many of those who oppose halal/kosher slaugher publicly or secretly are led also and especially by non-kosher motives. I am skeptical about the lessons that could be learnt from history, but as a historian and a Jew I believe that something should be noted in this context. Wherever the Nazis assumed power a ban on kosher slaughter was among the first measures they took. In Germany it was banned in April 1933 ( Hitler came to power on January 30th of that year ), and in Holland in July 1940 ( the country was invaded on May 10th ). Towards the end of the Nazi propaganda film Der ewige Jude ( The Eternal Jew, 1940 ) there is a gruesome scene in which ritual slaughter is presented as a barbarian custom, with Jews enjoying the suffering of animals, something that obviously does not correspond to reality and contravenes all Jewish religious commandments. I believe very much in animal protection and I would never hurt an animal just for the fun of it, but people who ( claim/appear to ) care more about animals than about human beings instinctively raise my suspicion: from Adolf H. to Brigitte B. and Volkert van der G. ( the Dutch activist for the environment and for animals’ rights who murdered the populist politician Pim Fortuyn ).

In the Netherlands there are no real problems with Islam as such. Yet the Dutch face serious problems that are directly linked to certain groups of Muslims in Holland. Those problems affect all Dutch citizens, and Muslims have a greater interest than anybody else in solving them. Unfortunately, apart from a few exceptions most politicians and opinion makers who publicly mention those problems are clowns, agitators and attention seekers like Geert Wilders and Ehsan Jami ( a twentysomething-year-old would-be politician, born in Iran, who founded an organization for ex-Muslims, and who compared the Prophet Muhammad to Hitler in an opinion article that he co-wrote with Wilders ). Every subject raised by the PVV automatically becomes caricaturized, totally politically incorrect, and a taboo that is not open to discussion in any respected forum. At the right side of the Dutch political spectrum we only hear Geert Wilders’ ‘vision’ about subjects such as integration, salafism, seditious imams, and Moroccan delinquents. In the political center and at the left side of the political spectrum the hear-all-see-all-say-nothing approach is often prefered. It would be good for all those who live in the Netherlands – Muslims, Jews, Christians, and all other believers and unbelievers – if also the big political parties would have the courage and wisdom to stop beating about the bush and start calling a spade a spade. That is exactly how stigmatizing a whole section of the population can be prevented. Only then a truthful, truly public discussion can be held on the pros en cons of the multicultural society, and the people of Holland will finally be able to actually discuss and deal with specific proplems related to multi-culturalism. Holland is too beautiful to let it be taken away from us by frustrated characters like Samir A. ( a young Dutch ‘would-be’ suicide terrorist of Moroccan descent, apparently linked to the Islamist Hofstad ( The Hague ) terror group ) and Dion G.