Dutch MP Wilders faces charges over showing of anti-Muslim film
The Dutch legislator who last year released a film linking the Koran to violence will be prosecuted in Holland for allegedly inciting hatred, discrimination and insulting language in the film, an Amsterdam court of appeals ruled on Wednesday.
A reaction by Geert Wilder’s Party for Freedom said the legislator regarded the court’s decision as “an attack on the freedom of expression.” Wilders also wrote: “I stand accused not alone but with hundreds of thousands of Dutchmen who reject the Islamization of the Netherlands.” He concluded: “I consider this a black day.”
During a visit to Israel last month, Wilders told Haaretz that he had “made sure” that his 14-minute film, which he entitled “Fitna,” is not in violation of Dutch law.
The court’s ruling came after numerous individuals and organizations appealed against a decision by Amsterdam’s chief public prosecutor Leo de Wit, who said last June that no case will be brought against Wilders in the Netherlands for either discrimination or incitement to hatred.
Commenting on de Wit’s decision, Wilders told Haaretz: “Thankfully, our legal system is still not like that of Jordan.” The Jordanian prosecutor’s office announced last summer it will prosecute Wilders for “blasphemy and contempt of Muslims” because of the film.
The film Fitna contains mainly archive footage of Muslim hate sermons, and heavily features calls by Islamist to kill Jews. Immediately after the film’s release in March 2008, a representative of the umbrella group for Dutch Muslims said that the online film does not constitute an insult to their religion.
Anti-Jewish rhetoric that Wilders compiled to prove what he considers Islam’s violent nature includes calls to behead Jews as well as an interview with a 3-year-old girl who quotes Allah’s words through the Koran as calling the Jews “apes and swine.”
The film also includes photos of demonstrators promising “another Holocaust”
and praises for Hitler by Muslim demonstrators.
