Bart Jan Spruyt
Bart Jan Spruyt is the founder of the Edmund Burke Foundation.[1] The foundation was heavily funded by pharmaceutical firm Pfizer[2][3] until funding was cut reportedly because of Spruyt's association with Geert Wilders.[4] Jan Spruyt was a personal friend of the populist Pim Fortuyn. Fortuyn was murdered in 2002 in the runup to the elections in the Netherlands.[5]
Views
On the subject of immigration Jan Spruyt argued that "Unfortunately, the debate about Dutch identity is too often held at a very trite and trivial level as if the discussion is between Brussels sprouts and wooden shoes on the one hand, and couscous and caftans on the other," going on to add "What is really at stake, due to frivolous immigration policies and decades of multicultural indifference, is the identity of the Dutch nation, Dutch history and culture as a part of the history of Western civilization."[6].
Bart Jan Spruyt also accompanied Geert Wilders on a visit to the US in 2005:
- I still recall sitting next to Bart Jan Spruyt for a dinner meeting of conservative leaders at a Midtown restaurant in 2005. Mr. Spruyt, the founder of the Dutch think tank Edmund Burke Foundation, was visiting here with a member of the Dutch Parliament, Geert Wilders. Bodyguards stood outside the closed meeting because Mr. Wilders had been under a death threat from radical Islamists because of his insistence on a moratorium on foreign immigration and his opposition to Turkey entering the European Union.[7].
In 2004 Jan Spruyt also argued against Turkey entering the EU, arguing that "People have become more aware of the huge problems you face to make another culture and another religion compatible with your own."[8]
Affiliations
Notes
- ↑ Moritz Schwartz, Ein ganz außergewöhnlicher Mann Junge Freiheit, 9-May-2003, Accessed 04-May-2010
- ↑ Corporate Watch, PFTHINK TANK PFONIES, Corporate Watch, Newsletter 27- 3, Accessed 04-May-2010
- ↑ ActionAid International, Under the Influence, Spinwatch, 26-January-2006, Accessed 04-May-2010
- ↑ Pieter van Os, Pfizer and Microsoft sponsored rightwing thinktank in the Netherlands, Spinwatch, Accessed 04-May-2010
- ↑ Moritz Schwartz, Ein ganz außergewöhnlicher Mann Junge Freiheit, 9-May-2003, Accessed 04-May-2010
- ↑ Mike Corder, High profile immigrants stir national identity crisis in the Netherlands, Associated Press, 21-November-2007, Accessed via Nexis UK 04-May-2010
- ↑ Alicia Colon, Madrassa Plan Is Monstrosity, The New York Sun, 1-May-2007, Accessed via Nexis UK 04-May-2010
- ↑ Graham Bowley, Turkey offers a test of EU multiculturism; Wary public may hurt Ankara's dreams, The International Herald Tribune, 15-December-2004, Accessed via Nexis UK 04-May-2010
