It would appear that Holland has forgotten its own history.

In a series of attempts to discourage immigration from Third World countries, the Dutch have introduced a legislative proposal that would require some potential immigrants to take an examination to prove that they have an understanding of the Dutch language and culture. This applies to individuals who marry a Dutch citizen or who have family members already living in Holland. 

It does not apply to people from the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan or the United States.

This exam will require 350 hours of study and will cost each applicant $468.

One of the most disturbing elements of this program is a video that these individuals must watch. The video describes the essence of Dutch life. In the video are images of windmills and tulips but there are also scenes of a homosexual wedding and topless women sunbathing - elements that are clearly offensive to Muslim people. 

There are about one million Muslims living in Netherlands. This represents six percent of the total population. They migrated to Holland mostly as "guest workers" from Morocco and Turkey from the 1960s through the 1990s.

According to Andre Krouwel, a political scientist at Amsterdam's Free University, Holland encouraged these workers to maintain both their linguistic and cultural identities. The Dutch governments assumed these workers would eventually return to their native homes. Some did but many did not. It was in essence a miscalculation. 

Now, the Muslim population in Holland is trying to become part of that country with all the rights and privileges the Dutch enjoy. However, there are a number of native Dutch who are against the absorption of these immigrants into their society. A recent poll showed that 50 percent of the voters support tighter restrictions on immigration and asylum and some elected officials are using this issue for political gain.

One such official is Parliamentarian Geert Wilders.

Wilders is building his political strength on a platform of anti-immigration and what many observers call bigotry. He calls immigration the biggest problem that Dutch society faces today. "We have been so tolerant of other's culture and religion," he says. "We are losing our own. Europe is losing itself. One day we will wake up and it will be too late. Immigration will have killed our country and our democracy".

He calls mosques "houses of terror and recruitment" for jihad. He describes Islam as "dangerous" and "fascist".

He warns the Dutch about not learning from the lessons of Pim Fortuyn, an anti-immigration activist who was killed by a deranged animal rights activist in 2002.

What is dangerous is that many of the people in Holland are listening to Wilders.

After the assassination of Pim Fortuyn his political party went on to win 26 of 150 seats in the Parliament.

Last November, when the anti-Islamist crusader Theo van Gogh was killed by a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent on a street in Amsterdam, the sentiment against Muslim immigrants rose sharply.

Wilders who had been isolated in the Parliament suddenly had 19 other members of that body supporting his ideas on immigration issues, such as a five-year moratorium on all non-Western immigration.

Just a few days after the Van Gogh killing, Fortuyn was named one of the most important persons in Dutch history, outpolling Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt, two world famous Dutch painters.

Wilders' rhetoric is inflammatory and often inaccurate. He claims that the immigrant population has grown from 160,000 to 1.6 million - a 1,000 percent growth.

What he does not say is that the number includes second and third generation children of immigrants, children born in Holland, who are legally Dutch.

He excites his audience by stating that 90 percent of the prison population is foreign. The Netherlands' Central Statistical Office shows that number to be about 50 percent. While this is a high percentage in relation to the total population, as Andre Krouwel has stated, Holland increasingly finds itself divided into two societies, a relatively affluent and educated Dutch "in-group" and a mainly Muslim under-skilled "out-group".

Disenfranchised members of any society are often found in higher percentages among prison populations. The underlying elements that men like Wilders and Fortuyn appeal to are dangerous and inhumane. With Dutch women having 1.7 children and their population living longer, economists predict their extensive social-welfare network will go bust without the influx of new, young workers.

True, some Dutch express concerns about losing their culture, about their disappearing heritage.

The answer should be in managing their immigration system, not in dismantling a major part of it. It is a shame that this country has reached such a sad state of affairs that they are looking at the ethnic background or religionist beliefs of would-be immigrants.