The movie fitna and beyond

The court case against politician Geert Wilders for inciting hatred and discrimination begins with the first public hearing in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Today’s hearing is a procedural one to determine which when the main sessions will be held and which witnesses will be called.

Wilders is facing several charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims, Moroccans and non-Western immigrants.

The MP has already said he wants to call more than 20 witnesses including criminal law professor Theo Roos and Mohammed Bouyeri - the man who murdered film maker Theo van Gogh. Wilders has described Bouyeri as ‘living proof’ that Islam inspires people to violence.

Not guilt

Nos tv reports that the public prosecution department is considering asking the court to find Wilders not guilty.

Sources have told the tv station the department is not convinced Wilders’ statements break the law. Today’s case has been forced to court by anti-racism campaigners after the department said it would not prosecute him.

The department’s sentencing demands will not be made public until after the main trial which will probably take place later this year.

The leader of the anti-Islam party PVV says the trial is a political one and has called on supporters to demonstrate outside the court room. Opponents are also planning a counter demo.

(AP) AMSTERDAM (AP) - A Dutch court is hearing a petition by anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly inciting hatred against Muslims.

Wilders is one of the Netherlands’ most popular politicians, having built his Freedom Party movement on anti-immigrant themes.

Charges against him stem from his March 2008 film “Fitna,” which juxtaposed Quranic verses against images of terrorism by Islamic radicals. He has also called for a ban on the Quran and said Muslim headscarves “pollute” the Dutch landscape.

Wilders is expected to argue that his comments fell within the boundaries of freedom of speech and that elected officials must be allowed to speak their mind.

The Amsterdam court will rule on the petition within a week of Wednesday’s hearing.

The legal case against anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders has been extended to include inciting hatred against Moroccans and non-Western immigrants, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.

The paper says the public prosecution department has taken the decision under its own steam, despite its earlier opposition to prosecuting the MP at all. But Amsterdam’s appeal court ruled a year ago Wilders should face charges of discrimination and inciting hatred.

The extra charge is based on Wilders’ statement that ‘the borders will close that same day to all non-western immigrants’, the paper said. The statement appears to refer to Wilders’ plans if he became prime minister.

Welcome decision

Wilders’ opponents welcomed the department’s decision. ‘It is a good move,’ said lawyer Gerard Spong, who has received death threats for his anti-Wilders’ stand.

‘Wilders always says he is attacking Islam, not Muslims,’ lawyer Haroon Raza told the paper. ‘But Wilders is not only talking about Muslims but non-Western immigrants, or people with different coloured skin.’

The anti-racism organisaton NBK has failed several times to have Wilders prosecuted for racial discrimination.

The case against Wilders opens on January 20.

Source:

DutchNews.nl

COPENHAGEN - Police foiled an attempt to kill artist Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoons several years ago depicting the Prophet Muhammad sparked outrage in the Muslim world, the head of Denmark’s intelligence service said today.
A 28-year-old Somalia man was armed with an ax and a knife when he tried to enter Westergaard’s home in Aarhus last night, said Jakob Scharf, who heads the PET intelligence service. The assailant has “close relations” to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab and to al-Qaeda leaders in eastern Africa, Scharf said in a statement.

Westergaard, 75, who had his 5-year-old granddaughter on a sleepover, called police and sought shelter in a specially made safe room, authorities said. He was not hurt. Police arrived and tried to arrest the man; he wielded an ax at an officer, who then shot him in the knee and hand, authorities said. The man is to be charged today with attempted murder, Scharf said. - AP

Talk about making Wilders’ point:

Brandishing banners saying ‘Sharia is the true solution , freedom go to hell’, Muslim protesters met Mr Wilders outside the house of parliament 

It was feared that his outspoken views on Islam could spark religious violence, but this was rejected by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal on Tuesday.

Lord Pearson, who invited the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party to the UK, said his arrival was ‘a celebration of the victory of freedom of speech over those who would prevent it in this country, particularly the Islamists, the violent Jihadists who are on the march across the world and in the UK.’

Mr Wilders denied responsibility for the publicity which has greeted his visit.

The 46-year-old said: ‘If anybody has responsibility for this publicity it is the UK Government and the Home Secretary and not Geert Wilders.

Press conference: Mr Wilders described his UK visit as a ‘victory’

‘On this occasion the Home Secretary is not minded to recommend that Wilders is denied admission to the UK.

‘Clearly Mr Wilders’ statements and behaviour during a visit will inevitably impact on any future decisions to admit him.’

The tribunal found there was no evidence to suggest the politician represented a serious threat, and if trouble erupted the police could remove him.

‘It was more important to allow free speech than to take restrictive action speculatively,’ they said.

UPDATE: Watch all of Wilders’ remarks. It is fascinating, as is the dhimmi press.

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The far-right Dutch MP who overturned a United Kingdom travel ban, despite being labelled a threat to “community harmony”, is planning to visit the capital this week.

Geert Wilders, who is accused of Islamophobia but won a case against the Home Office yesterday to allow him to enter the country, said that he did not want to come to incite violence, but to have a debate.

He will not be showing his controversial anti-Muslim film Fitna, which fuelled racist violence, although he said that he planned to show it on a later date.

Mr Wilders, the Freedom Party MP, told Radio Five Live: “I believe it was a good day yesterday for the freedom of speech.

“Never — and I have been to many countries and had this debate — has anything violent happened.

“And I’m a democratic politician and I only use democratic means like speeches. This is the way it works in civil society.”

The then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith ordered the ban against Mr Wilders entering the country in February, on the grounds that his presence would inflame community tensions.

The MP was turned back at Heathrow Airport.

He was due to show Fitna, his 17-minute film which criticises the Koran as a “fascist book”, at the House of Lords.It features verses from the Koran with images of terrorist attacks in New York, London and Madrid, and calls on Muslims to remove “hate-preaching” verses from the text.

It sparked violent protests around the Muslim world last year for linking verses in the text with footage of terrorist attacks.

Mr Wilders had been invited to the UK by the UKIP peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch.

Yesterday, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that there was no evidence a previous visit had caused problems and said it was more important to protect freedom of speech.

The Government is considering whether to appeal.

Mr Wilders’s anti-immigration Party for Freedom, founded in 2006, has nine seats in the Dutch parliament. It came second in the June elections to the European Parliament with 17 per cent of the vote.

Mr Wilders has urged the Dutch Government to ban the Koran and has said that his party “would like to stop immigration from Muslim countries and close Islamic schools”.

In a newspaper interview during the summer, Mr Wilders, who is protected by armed bodyguards, claimed that Islam is “in opposition to freedom”.

He added: “If people are offended, that’s not my aim. I don’t talk about Muslims but about Islam.

“Everything I say is against the fascist Islamic ideology.”

He faces trial at home for inciting hatred against Muslims by comparing their religion to Nazism.

Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders has won an appeal against a Home Office decision barring his entry to the UK.

The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruling overturns a government decision that led to Mr Wilders being turned back at Heathrow in February.

The Freedom Party leader, who has been accused of Islamophobia, planned a UK visit next week, his solicitor said.

The Home Office said it was disappointed, and would decide in “due course” whether to fight the ruling.

A spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the court’s decision. The government opposes extremism in all its forms.

“The decision to refuse Wilders admission was taken on the basis that his presence could have inflamed tensions between our communities and have led to inter-faith violence. We still maintain this view.”

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said that a further appeal by the Home Office or a new ban on different grounds were possible.

The Home Office will need Court of Appeal permission to keep the travel ban in place pending any appeal.

Mr Wilders faces trial in his own country for inciting hatred.

The refusal to admit him to the UK in February prompted “a very heated debate at the time”, our correspondent added.

“There were people that said, ‘Look, we don’t like his views. His views may be unpleasant, they may be something we don’t agree with - but he should be allowed in to express those views and show his film, and we can argue and debate with him.’

“There were others that said, ‘It would actually inflame tensions. This is not the kind of person that we want to have.’ That was very much the line that the government said at that time.”

UKIP invite

Mr Wilders’ lawyer, Tiki Emezie, said his client was “very happy” at the ruling, and would attend a meeting with the UK Independence Party’s Lord Pearson in London next week.

In February, he had been invited by Lord Pearson to the House of Lords to show his controversial film Fitna, which caused outrage across the Muslim world when it was posted on the internet last year.

When he was refused entry, Mr Wilders told the BBC it was a “very sad day” for UK democracy.

“I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not protesting or running through the streets of London,” he said.

“Democracy means differences and debate. It’s a very sad day when the UK bans an elected parliamentarian.”

Lord Pearson said it was a “matter of free speech”, telling the BBC: “We are going to show it anyway because we think MPs and peers should see this film.”

THE HAGUE: Dutch prosecutors declined on Tuesday to put far-right MP Geert Wilders on trial for distributing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him).

But they found that a Holocaust-denying cartoon in a separate case was punishable.

The prosecution service had received complaints about Wilders reproducing controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet on his website, as well as their display on a television programme.

It had also received complaints about two cartoons published on the website of the Arab-European League (AEL) lobby group, one of which allegedly shows Jews denying that the Nazi Holocaust happened.

The Danish cartoons and their reproduction were not punishable, the prosecution service said in a statement.

‘The cartoons are about the Prophet Mohamed, but don’t say anything about Muslims. None of the cartoons are offensive towards Muslims or contribute to hatred, discrimination or violence against Muslims.’

The Holocaust cartoon ‘is punishable because it offends Jews on the basis of their race and/or religion.’

The AEL has agreed to remove the cartoon from its Dutch website, said the statement. ‘If it complies, charges will be provisionally dropped.’

The Mohammed cartoons originally appeared in Danish newspapers in September 2005, sparking protests across the Muslim world. Five people died in Pakistan in protests in February 2006.

In a separate investigation, Wilders faces prosecution for inciting hatred against Muslims by making statements comparing Islam to Nazism.

He made a 17-minute film, ‘Fitna,’ which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called ‘offensively anti-Islamic’.

The screening of the film last year prompted also protests in Muslim nations. —AFP