Dutch politician Geert Wilders on Wednesday defended his anti-Islamic rhetoric during the final day of hearings in his trial for inciting hatred and discrimination. “The Netherlands is threatened by Islam. Islam is an ideology of hate and destruction. Islam threatens Western values and norms,” Wilders told the judges, the daily De Volkskrant reported.
The full text of Wilders’ speech can be read here.
Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders often “went far” in his criticism of the Muslim religion, but he never overstepped acceptable boundaries, his lawyer said in court Monday.
“He goes far, but he never goes too far,” lawyer Bram Moszkowicz told the Amsterdam district court where the flamboyant politician faces hate speach charges. “He doesn’t speak out because it’s funny. He speaks out over the gravest danger facing our Western civilisation: an increased Islamisation,” Moszkowicz told judges.
“Acts of terror have been committed… with the Koran in hand, in London, in Madrid,” he added, referring bombings in the two capitals. “If there’s a threat, Mr Wilders speaks out about it,” said Moszkowicz in the trial, broadcast live on Dutch national television’s website.
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Right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders is not allowed to speak next month in the canton of Valais. Officials in Savièse said right-wing figures could bring unrest to the community, and that applications for protest permits had already been filed. Wilders was invited to speak by Swiss People’s Party member of parliament Oskar Freysinger.
Statements and speeches by PVV leader Geert Wilders over the past few years have led to an increase in discrimination and violence against Muslims, the MP’s trial in Amsterdam was told on Friday.
Michiel Pestman, representing a number of ethnic minority organisations, told the court Moroccan and other minority groups felt attacked by Wilders. “The attitude towards the Moroccan community has become harder due to the defendant’s actions,” Pestman said.
Mohamed Rabbae, former leader of the left-wing green party GroenLinks, told the court the PVV political manifesto shows Wilders’ eventual aim is to “get rid” of all Muslims.
Dutch prosecutors Wednesday again argued for anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’s acquittal on hate speech charges, saying that while his comments may have caused anxiety and insult, they were not criminal.
“In regards to this case, the public ministry has not changed its mind. We recommend an acquittal,” prosecutor Paul Velleman told the Amsterdam district court. Prosecutors previously called for the politician’s acquittal on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims and people of non-Western immigrant origin, particularly Moroccans.
Amsterdam district court has rejected a call by Geert Wilders’ legal team that the inciting hatred and discrimination case against him be dropped.
Wilders’ lawyer Bram Moszkowicz said at the beginning of this month that his client would not get a fair trial and urged the court to abandon the case.
Moszkowicz’ argument centres on a senior court official who was influential in ensuring Wilders was taken to court even though the public prosecution department was unwilling to pursue the case.
But the court said on Monday it did not accept Moszkowicz’ claim that the anti-Islam party leader would not get a fair trial and said claims Tom Schalken had tried to influence a key witness during a dinner party were implausible.
Schalken was no longer involved in the case, and although he should have acted with greater caution to ensure no signs of partiality, he had not gone too far, the court said.
See also AFP, 23 May 2011
Dutch News reports that during a debate in parliament yesterday the Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer walked out of the chamber after Wilders said that the Labour Party had spent 30 years bringing “Islamic voting fodder” into the country. Volkskrant says that Roemer later challenged prime minister Mark Rutte, whose government relies on support from Wilders’ PVV, to dissociate himself from the comment. Rutter replied that it was a “very inappropriate term”.
Via Islam in Europe
Dutch politician Geert Wilders sees a kindred spirit in Tennessee – a state where new mosques draw protests and the legislature is considering a bill that once targeted adherents of Islamic law.
On trial for hate speech in his home country, Wilders brought his headline-grabbing views on Islam to Middle Tennessee on Thursday. He came to town as the invited guest of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, a 2-week-old political coalition founded by Republican former congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik.
“I come with a warning for America,” said Wilders, a filmmaker and member of the Dutch parliament, and something of a cult celebrity in some conservative circles. Close Islamic schools, he warned America. Halt construction of mosques – or “hate palaces”, as he calls them. Cut off immigration from “non-Western and especially Islamic countries”, and expel any immigrants who do not “assimilate”.
Dutch politician Geert Wilders sees a kindred spirit in Tennessee – a state where new mosques draw protests and the legislature is considering a bill that once targeted adherents of Islamic law.
On trial for hate speech in his home country, Wilders brought his headline-grabbing views on Islam to Middle Tennessee on Thursday. He came to town as the invited guest of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition, a 2-week-old political coalition founded by Republican former congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik.
“I come with a warning for America,” said Wilders, a filmmaker and member of the Dutch parliament, and something of a cult celebrity in some conservative circles. Close Islamic schools, he warned America. Halt construction of mosques – or “hate palaces”, as he calls them. Cut off immigration from “non-Western and especially Islamic countries”, and expel any immigrants who do not “assimilate”.
“I was happy to visit the state of Tennessee, where I know a lot of people – certainly a lot of Christians – feel the same threat as we do, and know when you talk about values, when you talk about who you are and who you are not, and that Christianity is for certain not the same as Islam,” said Wilders, who is not himself a Christian. “I compare Islam not with Christianity and Judaism. I compare Islam with fascism and communism.”
His first stop of the day was talk show host Steve Gill’s radio show, then a meet-and-greet and news conference at Williamson County Republican Party headquarters in Franklin. The evening ended with a closed-to-the-press speech at Cornerstone Church in Madison about what Wilders sees as the evils of the world’s second-largest religion.
In Franklin, about a dozen protesters stood in the punishing May sunshine across from Republican headquarters, waving signs that said “SHAME” and “Be nice or go away”.
“It’s very inappropriate for an official political party here in Tennessee to bring in someone so notorious,” said Williamson County Democratic Party Chairman Peter Burr. “This guy is sort of the epitome of the outside agitator. That’s not the way we do business here in Tennessee.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement condemning Wilders’ visit to Tennessee and asking state and local Republican officials to repudiate the decision to “honor one of the world’s leading Islam-haters”.
See also Peter Burr, “Outside agitators should not define America’s values”, The Tennessean, 12 May 2011
Update: Wilders’ speech has been reproduced on a number of right-wing blogs, including Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs.