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.
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.”
The Islamic Foundation wanted a judgement on the Freedom Party’s leader after he compared the Qur’an to Mein Kampf and called Islam a fascist religion. However the judge ruled that members of parliament have to be able to express their opinions strongly.
Geert Wilders used the cartoon by Danish artist Kurt Westergaard twice in the film Fitna. The drawing, which depicts Islam’s prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse, provoked violent protests in Muslim countries when it was published by European newspapers two years ago.
Calls from countries with a largely Muslim population to ban Geert Wilders film Fitna have fallen on deaf ears in the Netherlands, where freedom of expression is seen as an unassailable right.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon calls far-right lawmaker’s movie ‘offensively anti-Islamic,’ Iran and Bangladesh warn movie could cause grave consequences, while Pakistan protests to Dutch ambassador.
Life imitates art: The anti-Islam film ‘Fitna’ by far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has been pulled from the internet after the website company which posted it received threats.
The leader of Netherlands’ anti-immigration party, Geert Wilders, posted an anti-Islam film Thursday that was expected to raise an uproar among Muslims. So far, the fallout has fallen flat.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende rejected the film in a statement Thursday, saying, “The film equates Islam with violence. We reject this interpretation. The vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence. In fact, the victims are often also Muslims.”
The film was not as jarring as anticipated, said Maurits Berger, professor of Islam in the West at Leiden University.