A small step toward sanity. An update on this story, courtesy the Dutch Freedom Party:
Two thousand Dutch schools will receive mail from the state-subsidized Day of Respect Foundation this week. The Foundation is forced by the Dutch cabinet to correct its class material that states that Geert Wilders is to be compared to Adolf Hitler. Geert Wilders” Freedom Party (PVV) fought bitterly over the last days to have the text withdrawn.
The class material is already distributed to schools on a national scale. Many of these schools already have used the booklet, and many 10-to-12 year olds now know that Geert Wilders can be compared to Adolf Hitler, and that Geert Wilders has a problem with people “that look different”, a clear statement.
PVV education spokesperson Martin Bosma: “The comparison was the gravest of insults. It cannot be tolerated that Geert Wilders is compared to a mass murderer. We also view it as a way to marginalize the holocaust, to trivialize the murder on the six million. We are deeply hurt that taxpayers money is spend to indoctrinate children, and to warn them against the Freedom Party.”
Initially the Day of Respect Foundation refused to change its booklet. An international avalanche of publicity, including on many American websites, put tremendous pressure on the Dutch cabinet. Ms Sharon Dijksma, the under-minister of Education, recognized this issue was a no-win situation for her, and put pressure on the Foundation. Therefore, the Day of Respect Foundation will come with a new page that will be send to the schools, asking to use this page instead of the page that states that Wilders is Hitler, and that Wilders has no respect for people that look different. In the debate in Parliament today, Mr Bosma branded the Day of Respect Foundation as a leftist multiculturalist organization that is set up to re-educate the Dutch people.