An Islamophobic politician Geert Wilders’ right-hand man and a former far-right Lawmaker from the Netherlands described his somewhat unexpected conversion to Islam.
According to Joram Van Klaveren, he was raised as a devoted Calvinist and was born in Amsterdam in 1979. Since he was a little child, he has been interested in other faiths. “When I was younger, I had some questions regarding Christian doctrines, such as the Trinity, because I occasionally felt a little lost. Are we praying to Jesus Christ if you were? Do we address God the Father in prayer? Or do we ask the Holy Spirit in our prayers? In a sense, I didn’t know,” Klaveren admitted.
Klaveren noted that the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks took place at the same time that he began college and was looking for answers to his questions about Christianity. This supported my theories, and later in 2004 Theo Van Gogh, a well-known filmmaker in this country was murdered by a man identifying himself as a jihadi. As a result, I joined the (Wilders’ Islamophobic) Freedom Party because I reasoned that because all these people are insane, I need to do something. To “warn people” about Muslims, he added, he decided to write a book in 2014. I wanted to explain it to them and other people so that they would know more about why we, the Freedom Party, or I personally, obtained their votes. The greatest threat to the Netherlands, all of Europe, and perhaps the entire planet, in my opinion, was Islam.
However, Klaveren claimed that after disagreements concerning Moroccans living in the Netherlands, he departed the party. “Yes, I did everything I could to resist Islam, I believe. But, I left the party in 2014 due to a dispute with Moroccans. At a gathering, Wilders stated that he wanted fewer Moroccans living in the Netherlands. And he questioned, “Do you want more or less?” to the crowd. Everyone then began to shout less, less, less, less. He claimed that he and Wilder got into a fight over that and that’s why he left the party: “I was really anti-Islam back then still, but I wasn’t per se anti-Belgium or the Congo or the Moroccan.”
In 2014, after leaving the party and as he was preparing an anti-Islam book, new inquiries regarding Christianity surfaced. “I made a comparison between the notions of God in Christianity and Islam, and I realized that I needed to go back and read the things I had previously assumed I knew about Christianity as well. And in the end, I concluded that what Muslims believe about this concept of God is a little bit more reasonable than what Christians believe. He sought the assistance of English academic Abdal Hakim Murad, who had converted to Islam and changed his name from Timothy John while researching Islam.
Klaveren noted that even though he had previously read exclusively Western literature on Islam, Murad had instead recommended him to only read Islamic sources, and this was a significant difference from his past reading habits. Finally, I received nearly two Islams. Although there is only one Islam, I learned about it via Orientalists, Westerners, non-Muslims, and (later) the “real deal” Islam as it (truly) is. In addition, Klaveren claimed that although he eventually came to understand that Islam was not “false,” he still found it difficult to accept. His conversion to Islam was not warmly received by those around him. They expressed great surprise. They told him, “I can’t believe it. What occurred is ridiculous.
On the recent rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, Klaveren claimed that one factor contributing to Islamophobia is mainstream media. He specifically mentioned how Arabs and Muslims are frequently portrayed as terrorists, especially in Hollywood films. “I believe that the media is today’s biggest concern. And the media depicts this because bad news is more profitable. Hence, a lot of people who already have biased minds are being clearly shaped by horrible things, like terrorist attacks and other similar events that keep happening.
