ANKARA

The Netherlands' far-right Party for Freedom has urged the closure of all mosques in the country during a debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Speaking during a debate in the House of Representatives regarding integration issues, Party for Freedom MP Machiel de Graaf said "we want to de-Islamize the Netherlands," and called for the closure of mosques funded from abroad.

De Graaf said, “Dutch unity, identity and culture are being wrecked by immigration and via wombs."

Other parliamentarians, most notably Labor MP Khadija Arib who chaired the debate, criticized De Graff's call and said on her twitter account that “the integration debate had reached a low point.” 

Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, said on Nov. 15 in Palm Beach, U.S., that "Islam is eating away at our Judeo-Christian and humanist civilization and replacing it with intolerance, hatred and violence. And our so-called leaders allow it... our politicians foolishly allowed millions of Islamic immigrants to settle within our borders."

Wilders had altered the Saudi flag in December, 2013, using the Arabic alphabet to include insults to Islam. He had put the modified flag on the door of his office in the Parliament building and urged his fellow countrymen to do the same.

He also had compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

He was acquitted of charges of "hate speech against Muslims" in 2011 by the Dutch court on the grounds that his comment targeted a religious group and not an ethnic one.

www.aa.com.tr/en