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.
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 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.
Independent, cybercrime observer Zone-H.org has reported that Islamic hacker communities are involved in the latest online “hacktivism” addressing perceived Dutch Islamophobia, particularly member of parliament Geert Wilders’ controversial film released earlier this year.