A far-right Dutch MP whose film linking Islamic texts with the terror attacks on New York sparked protests around the Muslim world was last night banned from entering Britain.
Geert Wilders, who leads the small Dutch Freedom Party, was due to show his controversial 17-minute film at an event in the House of Lords tomorrow, but was informed yesterday by British officials that he would not be allowed to enter the country. The decision sparked an immediate diplomatic row after the Dutch Government pressed Britain to reverse the ban.
The film Fitna, which criticises the Koran as a “fascist book”, sparked violent protests around the Muslim world last year. The film, which has been posted on the internet, juxtaposes images of the Koran with footage of the 9/11 twin tower attacks and other terrorist atrocities. Mr Wilders had been invited to show the film at an event in Westminster hosted by Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the former Conservative, who is now a UK Independence Party member of the House of Lords.
See also BBC News, 11 February 2009
Over at the Spectator, under the headline “Britain capitulates to terror”, Melanie Phillips denounces this as “another fateful and defining issue for Britain’s governing class as it continues to sleepwalk into cultural suicide”. On his Telegraph blog, Daniel Hannan demands: “Can this really be true? An elected representative, the leader of a legitimate political party, banned from entering the United Kingdom? On what possible grounds?”
The fascists of the BNP join in the condemnation of the ban on “the courageous Dutch MP Geert Wilders”. And Wilders has his supporters at the Nazi Stormfront forum. Sample comments: “This man is a true hero”; “This is outright tyranny”; “Since when did ‘public order’ equate with or to protecting precious muslim feelings?”; “Geert is an absolute hero to many westerners who feel helpless at the snuffing out of their very civilisation”; “What on earth is happening to our once great land, where muslim evil dictators now rule?” etc, etc.