UN rights chief slams populists, warns of bigotry

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The U.N. human rights chief says U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders are among “populists and demagogues” who have mastered propaganda like the Islamic State group, saying that they “benefit from each other.”

In exceptionally strong terms, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned about the “banalization of bigotry” in Europe and the U.S. by populists who allude back to “a fictional halcyon past” and oversimplify messages.

Zeid, a Jordanian royal who often goes by his first name, focused mainly on Wilders in Monday’s speech Monday at a gala dinner organized by the Hague-based Peace, Justice and Security Foundation.

The rights chief challenged the audience “to speak out” against demagogues.

Wilders told The Associated Press that “Islam and freedom are incompatible with whatever this Jordanian bureaucrat says.”