Dutch Anti-Muslim Pol Praises Trump, Will Attend GOP Convention

Geert Wilders, the founder and leader of the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom, told BuzzFeed News that Donald Trump was the “one person” who had prioritized tackling the “issue of Islam” after the mass shooting this weekend in Orlando.

Wilders told BuzzFeed in a story published Monday that the incident proved that there should be a debate about Islam and specifically, “What does it mean that we’ve imported so much Islam to the Western free countries.”

Wilders has insisted that he despises Islam itself, not Muslims. He has called Islam “the ideology of a retarded culture,” has suggested women who wear headscarves be taxed, and compared Mohammad to Adolf Hitler.

Wilders has been involved in two hate speech trials against him. The latest one arose after he asked his supporters at a rally at The Hague if they wanted, “more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?” And when the crowd responded fewer, he told them that it would be taken “care of.”

Wilders has said he would attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July and BuzzFeed described Wilders as being “encouraged” by Trump.

“Whether you like him or not, I believe the issue of Islam should be number one on the political agenda … [and] he’s the one person at least in America who is making this issue,” Wilders told the news site.

The shooting left 50 people dead, including the shooter, identified as 29 year-old Omar Mateen. President Obama confirmed Monday that Mateen was “inspired by various extremist information” found online.

“The freedom that gay people should have — to kiss each other, to marry, to have children — is exactly what Islam is fighting against,” Wilders reportedly said. “They know exactly what it means to have Islam imported to your society.”

Trump gave a wide-ranging speech in response to the Orlando shooting on Monday where he attacked Hillary Clinton and suggested he would broaden a ban on Muslims to include people “from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies until we fully understand how to end these threats.”