The Dutch Trump? Geert Wilders Calls Islam Possibly More Dangerous Than Nazism, Wants To Close Borders

Dutch prime ministerial hopeful Geert Wilders called Islamic ideology possibly more dangerous than Nazism and that the Quran is more anti-Semitic than “Mein Kampf.”

Wilders is the leader of the anti-immigration Party for Freedom (PVV), which has been leading opinion polls ahead of the March 15 general election in the Netherlands. He has repeatedly aired his anti-Muslim views and last December was convicted of inciting discrimination with statements he made about Moroccans.

He has previously called for ownership of the Quran, Islam’s holy text, to be considered a crime. In an interview with Dutch broadcaster WNL Saturday, Wilders walked back that stance, saying “we’re not going to take the Quran out of people’s homes. Of course not.”

However, he suggested it should instead be banned from bookstores, in the manner of Adolf Hitler’s infamous anti-Semitic text “Mein Kampf.”

"This is a book that has more anti-Semitism than in ‘Mein Kampf,’” he said. “It is full of incitement to violence.”

In the same interview, Wilders, who has repeatedly cited U.S. President Donald Trump’s election victory as inspiration and been compared to the populist Republican, described mosques as “Nazi temples.” He also outlined his pledge to close all borders and stop sending aid abroad.

“This is our vision and these are the main strands,” he said. “I am not going to promise voters anything apart from this. We will make the Netherlands ours again, we will close the borders and all that money we send abroad — to Africa, to Brussels, to Greece, to asylum-seekers in the Netherlands.”

While Wilders’ party leads the polls, he is still unlikely to become the Netherlands’ prime minister. The Dutch elections generally lead to coalition governments and all mainstream parties have ruled out entering into a coalition with the PVV.

Wilders, though, warned against his party being shut out of government.

“If the PVV has more than 30 seats, other parties cannot ignore me,” he said. “ I know that if voters [choose] PVV ... [you cannot ignore] 2 [million] to 2.5 million people. ... That will not do. ... That would be very unwise. "