Chapter 49: Indonesia

197      one of the principal Atlantic human traders  See “Estimates: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade,” SlaveVoyages, accessed January 31, 2025, www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates.

197      crossed the Atlantic, engaged in genocides of Indigenous peoples . . . Matt Murphy, “Dutch King Willem-Alexander Apologises for Country’s Role in Slavery,” BBC News, July 1, 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66076562; Christa Wongsodikromo and Annemarie Toebosch, “Dutch King’s ‘Apology’ for Colonial Slavery Is an Erasure of History,” Truthout, July 10, 2023, truthout.org/articles/dutch-kings-apology-for-colonial-slavery-is-an-erasure-of-history; and Senay Boztas, “Manahahtáanung or Manhattan? Tribal Representatives Call for Apology for Dutch Settlement of New York,” The Guardian, May 15, 2024, www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/15/netherlands-reparations-new-york-lenape-native-american.

197      commenced its colonization of Indonesia  The Republic of Indonesia: The Country, the People, the History (Washington, DC: The Information Division Embassy of Indonesia, 1951), books.google.com/books?id=wf7kAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false, 33.

197      the most populous Muslim-majority nation in the world  K. Caileigh Stirling, “5 facts about Muslims and Christians in Indonesia,” Pew Research Center, March 28, 2024, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/03/28/5-facts-about-muslims-and-christians-in-indonesia; and “Indonesia Country Profile,” BBC News, October 25, 2024, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-14921238.

197      More than 280 million people “Mid Year Population (Thousand People), 2025,” BPS-Statistics Indonesia, last updated June 30, 2025, accessed October 24, 2025, www.bps.go.id/en/statistics-table/2/MTk3NSMy/mid-year-population--thousand-people-.html.

197      approximately 17,500 islands  “Indonesia Counts Its Islands to Protect Territory and Resources,” BBC News, June 7, 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40168981.

197      “Islam is inconsistent with freedom, Islam is oppressive” Jeremy Menchik quoted in Jon Emont, “When the Netherlands Had a Muslim-Majority Empire,” The Atlantic, March 15, 2017, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/netherlands-geert-wilders-islam-election-empire/519648.

197      “This is the same thing Wilders is saying now”  Menchik quoted in Emont, “When the Netherlands Had a Muslim-Majority Empire,” www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/03/netherlands-geert-wilders-islam-election-empire/519648.

197      born in 1902 in Jakarta  Tommy Patrio Sorongan, “Geert Wilders, Dutch Anti-Islam Politician of Sukabumi Descent,” CNBC Indonesia, November 29, 2023, www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20231129195911-4-493139/geert-wilders-politisi-belanda-anti-islam-keturunan-sukabumi, via Google Translate.

197      to an “Indo” family  Lizzy van Leeuwen, “Wilders’ Family History Reads Like an Indonesian Fate Novel,” De Groene Amsterdammer, March 11, 2017, www.groene.nl/artikel/de-familiegeschiedenis-van-wilders-leest-als-een-indische-noodlotsroman, via Google Translate; “Family History of Geert Wilders, Anti-Islam Politician of Indonesian Descent: Deported from the Dutch East Indies, Discriminated Against in the Netherlands,” BBC News Indonesia, November 25, 2023, www.bbc.com/indonesia/articles/cv2zrvng191o; and Juke Carolina, “Exploring Indo Identity with Dutch Photographer Armando Ello,” Global Voices, December 31, 2018, globalvoices.org/2018/12/31/exploring-indo-identity-with-dutch-photographer-armando-ello.

197–198 married a Dutch settler named Johan Ording Van Leeuwen, “Wilders’ Family History Reads Like an Indonesian Fate Novel,” www.groene.nl/artikel/de-familiegeschiedenis-van-wilders-leest-als-een-indische-noodlotsroman.

198      had a daughter in Sukabumi . . . named her Maria Anne Ording  Sorongan, “Geert Wilders, Dutch Anti-Islam Politician of Sukabumi Descent,” www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20231129195911-4-493139/geert-wilders-politisi-belanda-anti-islam-keturunan-sukabumi.

198      immigrated to the Netherlands . . . for “large-scale fraud and corruption”  Van Leeuwen, “Wilders’s Family History Reads Like an Indonesian Fate Novel,” www.groene.nl/artikel/de-familiegeschiedenis-van-wilders-leest-als-een-indische-noodlotsroman.

198      head of research at a manufacturer of copy machines  Gerald Traufetter, “A Missionary with Dark Visions,” Spiegel International, March 27, 2008, www.spiegel.de/international/europe/islam-critic-wilders-a-missionary-with-dark-visions-a-543627.html.

198      had four children; the youngest, Geert  “Dutch Election 2023: What You Need to Know About Geert Wilders,” DutchNews.nl, December 2, 2023, www.dutchnews.nl/2023/12/dutch-election-2023-what-you-need-to-know-about-geert-wilders/.

198      hailed from Venlo, near the Dutch border with Germany  Traufetter, “A Missionary with Dark Visions,” www.spiegel.de/international/europe/islam-critic-wilders-a-missionary-with-dark-visions-a-543627.html.

198      hid from occupying Nazis during World War II Traufetter, “A Missionary with Dark Visions,” www.spiegel.de/international/europe/islam-critic-wilders-a-missionary-with-dark-visions-a-543627.html.

198      refused to cross  . . . to enter western Germany  Traufetter, “A Missionary with Dark Visions,” www.spiegel.de/international/europe/islam-critic-wilders-a-missionary-with-dark-visions-a-543627.html.

198      death in 2005  Adam Taylor, “The Round-the-clock Isolation of Geert Wilders Has Lasted Over a Decade,” Washington Post, March 7, 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/07/the-round-the-clock-isolation-of-geert-wilders-has-lasted-over-a-decade/.

198      “The immigration of non-Western immigrants is an existential problem”  Geert Wilders quoted in Danny Kemp and Jan Hennop, “No Regrets, Says Dutch Anti-Islam Leader Wilders,” Barron’s, March 8, 2021, www.barrons.com/news/no-regrets-says-dutch-anti-islam-leader-wilders-01615254604.

198      “For whom is the construction being done? For the Dutch or for immigrants?”  Geert Wilders, Twitter, June 18, 2020, 6:41 a.m., x.com/geertwilderspvv/status/1273566578035101696, via Google Translate. Archived at archive.today, February 9, 2026 capture, archive.ph/wip/P2HaZ.

198      more than 90 percent . . . are allocated for non-immigrants  “Is It True That All Social Housing Goes to Status Holders?” Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers, accessed February 3, 2025, www.coa.nl/nl/lijst/het-waar-dat-alle-sociale-huurwoningen-naar-statushouders-gaan, via Google Translate.

198      “Name/family Wilders is from Germany. . .”  Paul Wilders, Twitter, June 18, 2020, 12:49 p.m., x.com/paul_wilders/status/1273659076015263751, via Google Translate. Cleaned up version of tweet provided in “Far-Right Dutch Leader Wilders Has Migrant Origins, Brother Says,” Daily Sabah, June 21, 2020, www.dailysabah.com/world/europe/far-right-dutch-leader-wilders-has-migrant-origins-brother-says.

198      “We are all immigrants”  Paul Wilders, Twitter, June 18, 2020, x.com/paul_wilders/status/127365907601526375.

198      accused Wilders of bleaching his hair to hide his . . . ancestry  Thomas Moerman, “How ‘the Original Trump’ Geert Wilders Became Europe’s Most Radical Populist,” Business Insider Nederland, March 14, 2017, accessed via Wayback Machine, March 14, 2017 capture, capture, web.archive.org/web/20170314221234/https://www.businessinsider.nl/how-the-original-trump-geert-wilders-became-europes-most-radical-populist/.

199      volunteered in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank  Michael Ray, “Geert Wilders,” Britannica, updated January 25, 2025, accessed February 3, 2025, www.britannica.com/biography/Geert-Wilders; and Cnaan Liphshiz, “Geert Wilders and Dutch Jews—End of the Affair?” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 29, 2014, www.jta.org/2014/04/29/global/geert-wilders-and-dutch-jews-end-of-the-affair.

199      traveled throughout the Middle East  Ray, “Geert Wilders,” www.jta.org/2014/04/29/global/geert-wilders-and-dutch-jews-end-of-the-affair.

199      served as a parliamentary assistant for Frits Bolkestein  Yasmeen Serhan, “Geert Wilders’s Moment,” The Atlantic, March 6, 2017, www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/03/geert-wilders-netherlands/518415.

199      helped Bolkestein rail against immigration, particularly Muslim immigrants  Traufetter, “A Missionary with Dark Visions,” www.spiegel.de/international/europe/islam-critic-wilders-a-missionary-with-dark-visions-a-543627.html.

199      set off on his own . . . elected . . . to the Netherlands House of Representatives  Serhan, “Geert Wilders’s Moment,” www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/03/geert-wilders-netherlands/518415.

199      criticized the supposed demise . . . within the EU “Pim Fortuyn: Man of Paradox,” CNN, May 9, 2022, accessed via Wayback Machine, August 27, 2023 capture, web.archive.org/web/20230827172113/https://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/05/06/fortuyn.profile/index.html.

199      “Cold War against Islam”  Pim Fortuyn quoted in J. Lester Feder et al., “The Man Who Taught Donald Trump to Pit Gay People Against Immigrants,” Buzzfeed News, March 4, 2017, www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/geert-wilders-the-netherlands.

199      opposed Muslim immigration, and argued that Muslims “don’t assimilate” In 2002, Pim Fortuyn said, “It's not very smart to make the problems bigger by letting in millions more immigrants from rural Muslim cultures that don’t assimilate.” Fortuyn quoted in “Pim Fortuyn: Man of Paradox,” web.archive.org/web/20230827172113/https://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/05/06/fortuyn.profile/index.html.

199      compared Fortuyn to Jean-Marie Le Pen  Pim Fortuyn was referred to as “the Dutch Le Pen.” See Ros Taylor, “The Wrap: Dutch Far Right Leader Assassinated,” The Guardian, May 7 2002, www.theguardian.com/news/2002/may/07/wrap.rostaylor. See also Kirsty Lang, “At home with ‘Professor Pim,’” BBC News, May 4, 2002, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1966979.stm; and June Thomas, “A World Without Fortuyn,” Slate, May 8, 2002, slate.com/news-and-politics/2002/05/the-netherlands-loses-its-innocence-with-the-assassination-of-pim-fortuyn.html.

199      orchestrated distance from the elder Le Pen  “Pim Fortuyn: Man of Paradox,” web.archive.org/web/20230827172113/https://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/05/06/fortuyn.profile/index.html.

199      “My policies are multi-ethnic and certainly not racist”  Pim Fortuyn quoted in “Pim Fortuyn: Man of Paradox,” web.archive.org/web/20230827172113/https://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/05/06/fortuyn.profile/index.html.

199      “I’m not anti-Muslim. I’m not anti-immigrant”  Pim Fortuyn quoted in “Pim Fortuyn: Man of Paradox,” web.archive.org/web/20230827172113/https://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/05/06/fortuyn.profile/index.html.

199      “false generalization about all Muslims . . . ”  Geert Wilders quoted in Moerman, “How ‘the Original Trump’ Geert Wilders Became Europe’s Most Radical Populist,” web.archive.org/web/20170314221234/https://www.businessinsider.nl/how-the-original-trump-geert-wilders-became-europes-most-radical-populist/.

199      after the terror attacks in the United States on September 11 . . . after . . . assassinated Fortuyn  Moerman, “How ‘the Original Trump’ Geert Wilders Became Europe’s Most Radical Populist,” web.archive.org/web/20170314221234/https://www.businessinsider.nl/how-the-original-trump-geert-wilders-became-europes-most-radical-populist/; and “Dutch Free Killer of Anti-Islam Politician Pim Fortuyn,” BBC News, May 2, 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27261291.

199      became the second largest in parliament weeks later  International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Election Guide, “Dutch Second Chamber 2002 General,” May 15, 2002, last updated June 21, 2024, accessed February 4, 2025, www.electionguide.org/elections/id/287.

199      “recognized that there was a gap in the political landscape”  Paul Wilders quoted in Moerman, “How ‘the Original Trump’ Geert Wilders Became Europe’s Most Radical Populist,” web.archive.org/web/20170314221234/https://www.businessinsider.nl/how-the-original-trump-geert-wilders-became-europes-most-radical-populist/.

199      “a name for himself as an opponent of Islam”  Paul Wilders quoted in Moerman, “How ‘the Original Trump’ Geert Wilders Became Europe’s Most Radical Populist,” web.archive.org/web/20170314221234/https://www.businessinsider.nl/how-the-original-trump-geert-wilders-became-europes-most-radical-populist/.

199      “hero”  Geert Wilders quoted in “Geert Wilders Tells German TV Show Pim Fortuyn Was Killed by Radical Muslim,” DutchNews.nl, February 27, 2017, www.dutchnews.nl/2017/02/geert-wilders-tells-german-tv-show-pim-fortuyn-was-killed-by-radical-muslim.

199–200 “Europe’s evolution from a Judeo-Christian civilization . . .”  Ba’at Yeor, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005), archive.org/details/eurabiaeuroaraba00yeor/page/8/mode/2up, 9.

200     planned to replace White Jews and Christians in Europe . . . undercutting . . .  Sindre Bangstad, “Bat Ye’or and Eurabia,” in Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the New Threat to Liberal Democracy, ed. Mark Sedgwick (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 171, 174–178. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/1135470779?oclcNum=1135470779.

200     influenced . . . Breivik  Bangstad, “Bat Ye’or and Eurabia,” archive.org/details/eurabiaeuroaraba00yeor/page/8/mode/2up, 171; and Sindre Bangstad, “Opinion: Norway Ten Years After the Utøya Massacre,” opinion, Al Jazeera, July 26, 2021, www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/7/26/norway-ten-years-after-the-utoya-massacre.

200     “This conflict here in the Middle East . . .”  “Speech Geert Wilders, Tel Aviv, 5 December 2010,” PVV, www.pvv.nl/nieuws/geert-wilders/3752-speech-geert-wilders-tel-aviv-5-december-2010.html.

200     “Islam threatens not just Israel . . .”  Speech Geert Wilders, Tel Aviv, 5 December 2010,” www.pvv.nl/nieuws/geert-wilders/3752-speech-geert-wilders-tel-aviv-5-december-2010.html.

200     winning nine House seats  IFES Election Guide, “Dutch Second Chamber 2006 General,” November 22, 2006, last updated June 21, 2024, accessed February 4, 2025, www.electionguide.org/elections/id/386.

200     donated nearly $120,000 to Wilders’s party  Danny Hakim and Christopher F. Schuetze, “Geert Wilders’s Far-Right Dutch Party Sees Drop in U.S. Money,” New York Times, March 8, 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/europe/geert-wilders-netherlands-campaign-donations.html.

200     the single largest donation to any Dutch political party  Hakim and Schuetze, “Geert Wilders’s Far-Right Dutch Party Sees Drop in U.S. Money," www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/europe/geert-wilders-netherlands-campaign-donations.html ; and “Authoritarian Right: Netherlands,” Corporate Europe Observatory, May 15, 2019, corporateeurope.org/en/2019/05/authoritarian-right-netherlands.

200     been small compared to the United States Hakim and Schuetze, “Geert Wilders’s Far-Right Dutch Party Sees Drop in U.S. Money,” www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/europe/geert-wilders-netherlands-campaign-donations.html.

200     has financed and platformed a number of Islamophobic voices over the years “David Horowitz,” Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), accessed February 4, 2025, www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/david-horowitz.

200     “a hero” and “the Paul Revere of Europe”  David Horowitz quoted in Danny Hakim and Christopher F. Schuetze, “Before Elections, Dutch Fear Russian Meddling, but Also U.S. Cash,” New York Times, March 7, 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/europe/before-elections-dutch-fear-russian-meddling-but-also-us-cash.html.

200     “a racist hate group”  David Horowitz quoted in “David Horowitz,” SPLC, www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/david-horowitz.

200     “We’re being invaded . . . It’s culture that makes America great . . .” “Zero Tolerance: David Horowitz Interview,” Frontline, PBS, accessed January 4, 2025, www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/david-horowitz.

200     “Why is South America poor? Why is Mexico poor? . . .”  “Zero Tolerance: David Horowitz Interview,” www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/david-horowitz.

200–201 set up his Party . . . have only one official member—himself  Hakim and Schuetze, “Geert Wilders’s Far-Right Dutch Party Sees Drop in U.S. Money,” www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/europe/before-elections-dutch-fear-russian-meddling-but-also-us-cash.html.

201      did not have to provide budget disclosures to members  Hakim and Schuetze, “Geert Wilders’s Far-Right Dutch Party Sees Drop in U.S. Money,” www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/europe/before-elections-dutch-fear-russian-meddling-but-also-us-cash.html.

201      the third-most seats in the House  After the 2021 Dutch elections, the PVV won the third-most seats in the lower house of the legislature. The next elections, which would change the number of seats, would not take place until November of 2023. See IFES Election Guide, “Dutch Second Chamber 2021 General,” March 17, 2021, last updated June 21, 2024, accessed March 7, 2025, www.electionguide.org/elections/id/3629.

201      held the most seats, having ruled since 2010  Eline Schaart, “Dutch Government Falls as Ministers Clash Over Migration,” Politico, July 7, 2023, www.politico.eu/article/dutch-government-pm-mark-rutte-in-crisis-over-asylum-measures.

201      proposed a waiting period of two years . . . to be reunited with their children  Claire Moses, “What You Need to Know About the Dutch Government Collapse,” New York Times, July 10, 2023, www.nytimes.com/article/netherlands-government-collapse-explained-mark-rutte.html.

201      One party . . . agreed. Two did not  “Why did the Dutch government collapse?” Euronews with AP, July 9, 2023, updated July 10, 2023, www.euronews.com/2023/07/09/why-did-the-dutch-government-collapse.

201      Rutte’s governing coalition collapsed  Moses, “What You Need to Know About the Dutch Government Collapse," www.nytimes.com/article/netherlands-government-collapse-explained-mark-rutte.html; and “Why Did the Dutch Government Collapse?” www.euronews.com/2023/07/09/why-did-the-dutch-government-collapse.

201      scheduled snap elections for mid-November  Cagan Koc/Bloomberg, “What to Know About the Dutch Government’s Sudden Collapse—and What Comes Next,” Time, July 10, 2023, time.com/6293255/mark-rutte-netherlands-government-collapse.

201      trailed in the polls until a televised debate on November 16, 2023 Senay Boztas, “Far-Right Party for Freedom Makes Gains in Poll Ahead of Netherlands Election,” The Guardian, November 19, 2023, www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/19/far-right-party-for-freedom-gaining-in-polls-ahead-of-netherlands-election; and “Netherlands—National Parliament Voting Intention,” Politico, Poll of Polls, accessed March 5, 2025, www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/netherlands/.

201      falsely claimed that more than half . . . were immigrants  “Parties Clash on Dental Care, Israel Military Aid, Health Insurance a Week Before Election,” NL Times, November 17, 2023, nltimes.nl/2023/11/17/parties-clash-dental-care-israel-military-aid-health-insurance-week-election.

201      declared he would put the Dutch first when distributing public housing  “Parties Clash on Dental Care, Israel Military Aid, Health Insurance a Week Before Election,” nltimes.nl/2023/11/17/parties-clash-dental-care-israel-military-aid-health-insurance-week-election.