Another former anti-Muslim Dutch politician becomes Muslim

Van Klaveren’s said during writing he came across many things “that made my view on Islam falter,” he told Dutch radio.

A former far-right Dutch politician announced on Monday that he has converted to Islam. Van Klaveren served as a member of parliament for the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) from 2010 to 2014.

Joram van Klaveren fought a relentless campaign in the Lower House against Islam in the Netherlands as a lawmaker for Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) for seven years. At the time, he pleaded for a ban on burqas and minarets, stating “we don’t want any Islam, or at least as little as possible in the Netherlands” the daily tabloid Algemeen Dagblad (AD) said.

He resigned after PVV leader Geert Wilders’ racist remarks about Moroccans and set up his own party, but failed to win a seat in the 2017 national elections, and quit politics.

Van Klaveren said he had changed his mind halfway through writing an anti-Islam book, which he told the respected NRC daily “became a refutation of objections non-Muslims have” against the religion. “If everything I wrote up to that point is true, and I believe that, then I am a de-facto Muslim,” he told the NRC. Local media reported that he converted to Islam in October 2018. Van Klaveren’s said during writing he came across many things “that made my view on Islam falter,” he told Dutch radio.

In this video below, the interviewer asked Van Klaveren: “Are you really now a Muslim?”
He replies: “Yes if you believe that there is a God and you believe that Muhammad is one of the prophets and is next to Jesus and Moses then that makes you Muslim.”

His decision follows in the footsteps of Arnoud van Doorn, another former PVV member who converted to Islam. Van Doorn praised van Klaveren on Twitter, saying he never thought that he would see so many converts from his former party.