Geert Wilders: “Tackle the Islamic terrorists and their sponsors, now!”

Today, De Volkskrant, one of the leading newspapers in the Netherlands, published an op-ed article by Geert Wilders. The original article (in Dutch) can be read via this link:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/3184/opinie/article/detail/3681574/2014/07/01/Pak-de-islamitische-terroristen-en-hun-sponsors-aan-nu.dhtml

Below is a translation in English:

Tackle the Islamic terrorists and their sponsors, now!

On Monday, the Dutch secret service AIVD announced that it takes the possibility of a major terrorist attack in our country very seriously. For over ten years, the establishment closed its eyes to the Islamic threat. On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists assassinated thousands of people in New York and Washington. The alarm bells sounded for the entire free world. Also for us. 9/11 made it clear that any country could fall victim to a major attack if Islam would not be radically confronted.

But the Dutch political establishment did nothing. For 13 years, they put their politically-correct heads in the sand. Pim Fortuyn was murdered. Theo van Gogh was murdered. There were Islamic terror attacks in London, Madrid, Mumbai, Moscow, Nairobi, but the cowardly policies continued. The regents in The Hague closed their eyes to the barbaric ideology that currently feeds terror worldwide: Islam.
Today, parties, such parties as VVD and D66, hypocritically argue that they, too, like the AIVD, worry very seriously about the risk posed by returning Syria fighters. Why do they not close the borders? Why do they not advocate, like the PVV, that whoever goes to Syria to fight for Islam will simply not be allowed to enter the Netherlands again? By doing nothing, they make themselves complicit in the calamities and the attacks that may befall us.

Last week, a poll by the opinion research bureau of Maurice De Hond revealed that three quarters of the Dutch are of the opinion that those who have left to wage jihad should lose their Dutch nationality and not be allowed into the country again. Why does the government not close the border? A majority of voters of all parties, except D66, thinks that the Islamic culture does not belong to the Netherlands. Why, apart from the PVV, does no-one dare to say so?
For ten years already, I have lost my freedom as a result of Islamic threats because I speak the truth. Ten years ago, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and I already warned that Saudi Arabia was financing extremist organizations, mosques and schools. We warned that hundreds of Islamic fighters in Europe were ready to commit terrorist actions. We warned against the naiveté and cowardice, the refusal respond adequately. We only received scorn and disgust.

We wrote that there had to be a strong response to the threat, if necessary by setting aside basic rights for terrorists. We advocated to close down the institutions which propagate hatred and intolerance. We advocated a ban on associations which incite jihad or condone it. Nothing happened.
Today we are reaping the fruits of this cowardly policy. The potential threat is "greater than ever before," writes the AIVD. But the Dutch political establishment is complicit to this situation. The Secret Service says literally: "The Dutch law seems to offer the police and judiciary little space to intervene." For thirteen years, nothing was done to remedy this situation. The Islamic extremists mock us. They take advantage of the cultural relativism that is the breeding ground for the flourishing of jihad on our soil. This cultural relativism has facilitated the deadly threat which we are facing today.

The AIVD advocates a "Delta Plan against Jihadism." However, this "Delta Plan" should already have been in place for a very long time. The Delta Works in Zeeland began after the flood of 1953. If we do not immediately put a tough action plan into practice in order to protect our citizens against the rising tide of Islamic terrorism, we are in danger of coming too late this time, too. Tackle the terrorists and their sponsors, now!

Geert Wilders MP is leader of the Party for Freedom