Joram Jaron van Klaveren (born 23 January 1979) is a Dutch politician. As a member of the

Party for Freedom The Party for Freedom ( , PVV) is a right-wing populist, far-right political party in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders is the founder, party leader, and sole registered member of the party. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Wilders' one-ma ...

he was an MP from 17 June 2010 until 21 March 2014. He subsequently was an independent until his term in office ended on 23 March 2017. He focused on matters of

desegregation Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation), leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws ...

employment-to-population ratio Employment-to-population ratio, also called the employment rate, is a statistical ratio that measures the proportion of a country's working age population (statistics are often given for ages 15 to 64) that is employed. This includes people that ...

egalitarianism Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hum ...

and

emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...

. From 24 March 2011 until 11 June 2014, he also was a member of the

States-Provincial The provincial council (, PS), also known as the States-Provincial, is the provincial parliament and legislative assembly in each of the provinces of the Netherlands. It is elected for each province simultaneously once every four years and has ...

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and newest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...

. He became well known for

anti-Muslim Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereot ...

comments. In October 2018, he converted to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

halfway through writing an anti-Islam book. After becoming a Muslim, he decided to rededicate his book to his search for religiosity and the subsequent conversion to Islam. His book titled ''Apostate: From Christianity to Islam in Times of Secularisation and Terror'' was published in both Dutch and English.

Biography

Van Klaveren was born on 23 January 1979 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. He was raised as a Reformed Liberated Christian, studied

religious studies Religious studies, also known as religiology or the study of religion, is the study of religion from a historical or scientific perspective. There is no consensus on what qualifies as ''religion'' and definition of religion, its definition is h ...

VU University Amsterdam The (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the othe ...

and has worked as an educator. From March 2006 to June 2009, he was a member of the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

Almere Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands across the IJmeer fro ...

on behalf of the

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party (Netherl ...

. In the 2010 general election, he was elected into the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

on behalf of the Party for Freedom. He has also been a member of the

States of Flevoland The States of Flevoland (, ) are the States-Provincial for the Dutch province of Flevoland. It forms the legislative body of the province. Its 39 seats are distributed every four years in provincial elections. Current composition Since the 20 ...

since the 2011 provincial elections. In 2009, van Klaveren was convicted for driving under the influence and refusing a sobriety test. On 21 March 2014, van Klaveren announced that he would leave the Party for Freedom, as he no longer agreed with the party's course. Controversial comments on the Moroccan minority in the Netherlands by party leader

Geert Wilders Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives. Wilders is best known for his right-wing p ...

after the 2014 local elections played part in this decision. Van Klaveren continued as an independent MP. In May 2014, Joram van Klaveren, together with Louis Bontes and Johan Driessen, founded a new conservative political party called For the Netherlands (VNL). After failing to get reelected during the 2017 general election because VNL did not secure a single seat, van Klaveren's term in the House formally ended on 23 March 2017. Subsequently, he became a commentator in April 2017 for the daily radio show ''Dit is de Dag'', produced by Christian public broadcaster EO. According to presenter

Tijs van den Brink Tijs is a Dutch male given name. It can be a derivative form of Matthijs, which is the Dutch form of Matthew or Matthias, or a short form of Timothijs or Timotheus, Dutch forms of Timothy. Another spelling of this name is Thijs. It may refer t ...

, he was hired because he represented conservative and right-wing Christians.

Conversion to Islam

At 40-years-old, he has said he became a Muslim after writing an anti-Islamic book. Van Klaveren was known for anti-Islamic comments: he spoke of "Muslim misery". In 2019, in interviews on the occasion of his publishing ''De afvallige'' ('The Renegade'), which chronicles his search for religion and religiosity, he mentioned that he now accepts

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

as a

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

, and said that he had converted to Islam. Van Klaveren is not the first high-profile PVV member to convert to Islam. He follows in the footsteps of

Arnoud van Doorn Arnoud van Doorn (born 18 March 1966, in The Hague) is a Dutch politician. He was a member of the Dutch political party, Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), before converting to Islam. Political career Arnoud van Doorn used to be part of the PVV. In Dec ...

, a former Hague-based PVV city councillor who converted in 2013. His former political leader Wilders (PVV) said he had never seen van Klaveren's conversion coming, adding that if van Klaveren had still been with the PVV, he would have had to leave immediately. His erstwhile VNL leader Jan Roos added he was equally startled: "Does this flip surprise me? Yes, totally." Said Bouharrou, who serves on the Board of Moroccan Mosques in the Netherlands praised his conversion and said that it was brave that he was prepared to do it in public.

Book

In his book, ''Apostate: From Christianity to Islam in Times of Secularisation and Terror'', van Klaveren talked about his testimony of faith: "With the idea in mind that one God Whom

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

and

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

, amongst others, spoke about is the same as the God that we read about in the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, and that

, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, without any doubts fits the line of prophets from the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, I decided to pronounce the testimony of faith. This took place after an excellent dinner in a cozy, homely setting with a small group of people. After pronouncing the

Shahada The ''Shahada'' ( ; , 'the testimony'), also transliterated as ''Shahadah'', is an Islamic oath and creed, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam and part of the Adhan. It reads: "I bear witness that there is no Ilah, god but God in Islam, God ...

, it did not rain gold and did not see the stars sparkle more than usual. However, I did notice a certain personal delight and rest."

References

External links

House of Representatives biography
(archive on

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

)
While Writing Anti-Islam Book He Became Muslim! – The Story of Joram Van Klaveren
2022, on

Youtube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Klaveren, Joram van 1979 births Living people Converts to Islam from Protestantism Dutch Muslims Dutch political party founders VoorNederland politicians Independent politicians in the Netherlands Dutch MPs 2012–2017 Members of the Provincial Council of Flevoland Municipal councillors of Almere Party for Freedom politicians People from Almere Politicians from Amsterdam People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni 21st-century Dutch educators Dutch former Christians Dutch MPs 2010–2012 Party for Freedom MPs