After drubbing by media, Trumps ambassador to the Netherlands apologizes for anti-Muslim remarks

Source: Washington Post

Embattled U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Hoekstra apologized Friday for making unsubstantiated anti-Muslim claims at a conference in 2015, comments that have clouded his early days in his post after reporters confronted him about them.

Hoekstra, a former Republican congressman from Michigan and recent political appointee, made the apology during an interview Friday with De Telegraaf, one of the largest Dutch newspapers, at the end of a particularly rough week for the new ambassador.

“Looking back, I am shocked I said that,” he told the newspaper Friday. “It was a wrong statement. It was wrong.”

Hoekstra made the remarks in question in 2015 during a conference on terrorism. He talked about the supposed “chaos” brought to Europe by immigrants from Islamic countries and repeated a baseless nostrum about so-called “no-go zones” that is popular in right-wing media.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/12/after-drubbing-by-the-press-trumps-netherlands-ambassador-apologizes-for-anti-muslim-remarks/