Muslim communities on Thursday expressed deep shock at the election victory of far-right populist Geert Wilders, who has previously advocated for the prohibition of mosques and the Quran, Islam’s holy book, in the Netherlands.
Wilders and his Freedom Party (PVV) beat all predictions on Wednesday night by winning 37 seats out of 150 in the Dutch parliament, well ahead of a Labour/Green combination and the outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservatives.
The result is sending shockwaves through Europe, where extremist nationalist ideology is putting pressure on democracies that now face the possibility of having to deal with the first far-right prime minister of the Netherlands.
"These election results are shocking for Dutch Muslims. We did not expect such a party with a program that is against the basic principles of the rule of law to be so big," said Muhsin Köktaş of the Muslim organization CMO.
Muslims make up around 5% of the Dutch population of almost 18 million people.
"It was a blow I have to process," Abessamad Taheri, a 45-year-old community worker in the multi-ethnic Schilderswijk neighborhood in The Hague told Reuters.
Mehdi Koç, a 41-year-old insulation installer, said he was shocked by the swing to the PVV, while Taheri said the vote sent different messages to Muslims, although the overwhelming emotion was disappointment.
"In part the message is that many people are xenophobic and don't want foreigners or Muslims. But another message is that people are very disappointed in 13 years of Rutte," he said.
However, Taheri, a member of the Labour party, said he could not really separate that from all the "nasty things" Wilders had said about banning headscarves and closing mosques.
After his surprise win, Wilders said he wanted to be prime minister for all Dutch people, but that appeared to do little to assuage concerns about what he might do later.
"If you say yes to Wilders now, then you will have to say yes later when he closes down all the mosques because then you cannot go back," Koç said, warning that Wilders will not lose sight of his eventual goals.
Some in the Netherlands think that the Dutch system of coalition government means Wilders will have to compromise on his most radical views, as political analysts also predict.
"He will not make the laws alone (other parties) will join and they have to cooperate," Kemal Yıldız, 54, said.
"It will be fine," Yıldız added.