A court in Amsterdam has acquitted MP Geert Wilders of charges of inciting hatred and insulting Muslims as a group.

The charges had been brought by individuals who felt they had been discriminated against by the anti-Islam nationalist MP.

The far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, facing a retrial on charges of incitement to hatred and discrimination, used a court appearance on Monday to engage in harsh anti-Muslim rhetoric, calling Islam a “totalitarian ideology” that seeks to “destroy” European civilisation.

A Dutch court approved on Friday a request from anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders to have new judges for his trial on charges of inciting hatred against Muslims, forcing the court to start the case over again.

It is alleged that one of the judges tried to influence one of Wilders’ witnesses.

Prosecutors in the hate speech case against Dutch politician Geert Wilders on Tuesday requested the court drop charges of insulting Muslims from the list of crimes being considered.

Although prosecutors would continue pushing for a conviction on charges of discrimination and inciting hatred against Muslims, they said incendiary statements Wilders had made about the Koran and Islam could not be construed as a direct insult to people of the Muslim faith.

The hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, set to become a shadow partner of the next government, will go ahead as planned after a court on Tuesday refused to dismiss his judges for alleged bias.

Wilders is charged with five counts of giving religious offence to Muslims and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans, in comments made between October 2006 and March 2008 in Dutch newspapers and on internet forums.

Seven days of hearings have been scheduled in the month of October, with judgment expected on November 4.

Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) came third in June 9 national elections, and is concluding a deal to support a new minority government of Christian Democrats and liberals in return for a voice in policy-making.

Dutch anti-Islamist politician Geert Wilders, who plays a controversial but pivotal role in the formation of a new Dutch government, went on trial on Monday for inciting hatred against Muslims.

Wilders is charged with inciting hate and discrimination against Muslims in comments he made in the media and for insulting Muslims by comparing the Islamic faith to Nazism.

An anti-Islam lawmaker in the Netherlands is forming an international alliance to spread his message across the West in a bid to ban immigration from Islamic countries, among other goals.

Geert Wilders told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday he will launch the movement late this year, initially in five countries: the U.S., Canada, Britain, France and Germany.

Geert Wilders, the radical anti-Muslim Dutch politician, will seek to test free speech in Britain next month when he makes a second attempt to visit the House of Lords to screen a controversial film equating Islam to Nazism.

Lord Ahmed, a Muslim peer, has promised to mobilise 10,000 Muslims to block Mr Wilders from entering the House of Lords.

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders is due to appear in an Amsterdam court on Wednesday on charges of religious insult and anti-Islam incitement.

The prosecution claims his 2008 short film “Fitna“, as well as statements made in interviews and speeches, incite hatred against Muslims. Wilders has called Islam a “backward” culture and the Koran a “fascist book that incites people to violence.”

Amsterdam – Dutch politician and Islam-critic Geert Wilders is due to travel to Britain later this week, the Netherlands’ Freedom Party said Wednesday, following the lifting of a British travel ban on him.

The Home Office insisted Mr Wilders would still inflame community tensions if he comes to the UK and is considering whether to appeal against the ruling.

The far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders was turned away from Heathrow today after testing the Home Secretary’s ban on him entering the country.

Immigration officials denied the Dutch MP entry to the country after the Government decided he should not be allowed to attend a screening of his controversial anti-Islamist film tonight.

In today’s RNB Roundup: Geert Wilders and more religion-motivated political correctness in England • What happened between a Mormon film maker and a lesbian priest • Church on fire (but not the right kind) • Religious Broadcasters (including the give-me-money-so-God-will-give-you-money-to-give-to-me scammers) tightening their belts • Church’s faith healing advertisement branded ‘irresponsible’ • The never-ending attempt to reconcile science and religion, and why it is doomed to fail. • A source guide to the Bahá’í Faith

Plus: Holocaust denier Richard Williamson on the subjects of Pink Floyd, women’s trousers and ‘The Sound of Music’

A diplomatic row over a decision by British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to ban controversial Dutch film-maker Geert Wilders from broadcasting his anti-Muslim film in the House of lords has escalated.

Wilders insists he will fly to the UK. “If they want to put me in handcuffs, a Dutch parliamentarian and party leader and send me back to The Netherlands, so be it.”

Amsterdam – Exactly half of the Dutch are opposed to Wednesday’s decision of the appeal court in Amsterdam to prosecute MP Geert Wilders. A minority considers it right that he should be charged with incitement to hatred, discrimination and insulting Muslims as a group, pollster Maurice de Hond reported Friday.

Of all those polled, 66 percent consider that in general, MPs can exceed the boundaries of free speech when they are outside parliament – they have parliamentary immunity inside – and that prosecution should be possible in such cases. A third (33 percent) did not think MPs should ever be prosecuted for anything they say, and 1 percent had no opinion.

The Amsterdam court has ruled that the Public Prosecutor’s Office should after all prosecute the populist politician Geert Wilders for anti-Islamic remarks.

“In a democratic system, hate speech is considered so serious that it is in the general interest to… draw a clear line,” the court in Amsterdam said.

Among other things, Wilders has compared the Quran to Hitler’s book Mein Kampf.