Ed. note, see: "Holland: Portent of Things to Come?"

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and his center-right coalition are standing up to Islamism, the true enemy of all civilized nations in the 21st century. Balkenende said Muslim groups “were sowing hatred, and [he] promised new anti-terror measures” in a speech to the European Parliament yesterday. On February 18 of this year, Dutch lawmakers promised to expel approximately 26,000 asylum seekers after digesting a parliamentary report which concluded

… that the country's 30-year experiment in tolerant multiculturalism had been a failure, and has resulted in poor schools, violence, and ethnic ghettoes that shun intermarriage with the Dutch.

It found that 70 percent to 80 percent of third-generation Dutch-born immigrants imported their spouses from their "home" countries, mostly Turkey and Morocco. The consequences of this were brought home after September 11, 2001, when the intelligence service discovered that terror network al Qaeda was "stealthily taking root in Dutch society."

Holland will hold the European Union presidency for the next six months. This adds great weight to the Dutch moves on counter-terrorism and immigration. Maybe some of their courage will infect the legions of the politically correct in Germany, France, etc. Maybe not. My partner here at netwmd.com couldn’t have said it better:

Whether you believe the Dutch government is right or not, one thing is clear. The Dutch face an insoluble problem in that their culture, customs, and mores are being undermined by foreigners who do not assimilate. Before one condemns the Dutch government, remember that the Netherlands is a tiny country, not at all as large as the U.S. which has its own problems with illegal and non-assimilating immigrants. But our immigrant problems are miniscule by comparison to Europe's where France is also threatened with extinction by a population not only unwilling to assimilate but increasingly Islamist and outright hostile to Western customs, values, law, and convention.

In short, too much liberalism, as witnessed in Holland for over thirty years, has now produced its opposite: a desperate attempt to save the nation from its own liberal excesses. I have written recently about assimilation, coming out in favor of it. Holland turned its back on assimilation in the name of progressive politics. It experimented with multi-culturalism for three decades and, after September 11th, it now faces the dangers posed by al Queda and other terrorist organizations taking root among the nation's immigrant populations. The party of a free-for-all Holland, a live-and-let-live attitude, is over. Holland has awakened with a bad headache, hung over from its own excesses.

In another related development, Italy has deported a number of African immigrants whom a do-gooder German group, Cap Anamur, brought into the country. Cap Anamur claimed the group were bonafide refugees from Sudan's Darfur province, but they turned out in reality to be Nigerians and Ghanans. According to the Beeb:

...Italy is taking a tough line on illegal arrivals, tightening up a new, stricter immigration law which came into force two years ago. ...

On Wednesday, [Italian Interior Minister] Mr Pisanu warned parliament that up to two million Africans and Asians were waiting in Libya for an illegal sea passage to Europe.

There are several hundred criminal groups waiting to transport them across the Mediterranean, he said.

The minister painted an alarming picture of the huge number of potential illegal immigrants.