New Yorkers: Stop Geert Wilders exploitatie van Ground Zero; stop Nederlandse overheidsbemoeienis
In opinie op 29-08-2010 | 15:35
"Far Right Extremist Shadow Cabinet Minister to Take Over New York Politics? Stop Dutch government interference in New York!
400 Years ago the Dutch founded New York. It was called New Amsterdam then. Last year, we celebrated the founding of our city, a place of freedom and tolerance, with the Dutch government. This year the Dutch will be back. With a vengeance.(..)
After 400 years, the Dutch will be exporting hatred and exclusion, not tolerance and freedom. (..)
We New Yorkers believe that reasonable people can reasonably disagree about the wisdom of the Ground Zero mosque. And we believe that free speech rights and the Ground Zero mosque are issues that New Yorkers and Americans are quite capable of addressing themselves, and that we don’t need any foreign governments’ interference, let alone some Dutch right-wing extremist’s meddling in our domestic affairs. Our Constitution protects freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression. Mr. Wilders wants to avail himself of the former, while denying the latter to others who have nothing to do with the Netherlands.
(..)
We call upon the Dutch government to stop interfering in our domestic debate. We prefer to think of the Dutch as people who brought New York freedom and tolerance, not segregation and exclusion.
Let the Dutch government know that Geert Wilders’ hate speech is not welcome here!"
Aldus schrijven New Yorkers in een petitie.
Bron: Boris Dittrich (D66, Human Rights Watch en woonachtig in New York) maakte op zijn facebookpagina melding van het initiatief. Hij meldt ook dat het een New Yorks initiatief is van een advocaat. Toch lijkt de petitie niet echt aan te slaan in New York. Een week na verschijnen hadden 45 mensen de lijst ondertekend, daarna zijn het vooral Nederlanders die de petitie hebben getekend.
Meer over ground zero, petitie, wilders.
