Islamism - 6

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[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Dutch top diplomat says Muslims lack tolerance 'gene'</span></b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->[/center]

<b>[center]<i>Dutch ministry says FM was misinterpreted, stresses majority of Muslims in Netherlands are tolerant.</i>[/center]

<span style='color:red'>BRASILIA - Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot says Muslims lack a tolerance "gene," in an interview with the Brazilian daily Correio Braziliense.

"We always have been a tolerant country, and we still are. You have to look at the facts: 10 percent of our population comes from Muslim countries. They have gone on to become Dutch citizens, but they have different genes from ours. They are less tolerant," Bot said in the interview published Wednesday.</span></b>

"The murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van Gogh teach us a lesson: ... the million Muslims who live in Holland should become truly Dutch," Bot said in the interview held Tuesday as he paid a visit to Brazil's capital.

"We underestimated this necessity precisely because we are a tolerant nation," Bot added, noting that "some immigrants have not adapted automatically to our model."

On the possibility of Turkey joining the European Union, Bot said that "for the Dutch" the Turkish people have a different culture, could take our jobs and not integrate in a satisfactory way."

"The religious issue may have some weight but in and of itself has not been a decisive factor in my country," he said. "The problem is that the Turks who settled in the Netherlands in the 60s were the poorest in their country of origin ... a bit underdeveloped and poorly educated.

"That (in the Netherlands) created a certain image of Turkey. People are frightened that 80 million people like that could join the EU," he said.

Dutch ministry says FM was misinterpreted

However, the Dutch foreign ministry Thursday denied that Foreign Minister Bernard Bot had accused Muslims of lacking a tolerance gene, saying he had been misinterpreted.

"When talking about integration problems in the Netherlands the minister said there was a small group of extremist Muslims that seem to have 'intolerance in their genes' while mimicking quotation marks with his hands as he spoke," Bot's spokesman Herman van Gelderen said in The Hague.

Bot's spokesman said: "The minister stressed that the vast majority of Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands is tolerant and wants to co-exist peacefully but said there is a small minority of extremists with other views."

Van Gelderen added that Bot also said he was in favour of Turkey joining the European Union if they meet certain conditions.

"The comments he made about the Turkish having a different culture were to illustrate some of the fears the population of the Netherlands and other EU countries have when thinking about Turkey joining the EU," Van Gelderen added.

"Bot has a positive attitude towards Turkish accession. He trusts that it will happen but it could be a process of years," the spokesman said.

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