In January 2009, Geert Wilders, now 47, was charged with “incitement to hatred and discrimination” by the Amster-dam Court of Appeal.
At the conclusion of the trial last month, Judge Marcel van Oosten accepted that the Freedom Party leader’s statements were directed at Islam and not at Muslims. The court found that while Wilders may have on occasion spoken in a hurtful and coarse way, he should be able to propagate his views as part of public political debate.
The case was a bizarre one. The public prosecutor had decided years ago not to charge Wilders. But an Amsterdam court forced the public prosecutor to file charges, something that can only be done in the Netherlands. When the case came to trial, the public prosecutor requested that Wilders be found innocent.
Wilders was born in Venlo in the predominantly Catholic south of Holland but said he spent many years traveling throughout Israel, Iran and the Middle East in general. He believes the Qoran, the Islamic holy book, is a dangerous work that incites violence and has likened it to Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Wilders’ anti-Islamic and anti-minority Freedom Party has recently grown in power; after the June 2010 elections, the party became the third-largest in the 150-seat Dutch House of Representatives with 24 seats.
The conservative parliamentarian isn’t shy about his opinions on Islam and immigrants. He received much criticism for his controversial, anti-Islamic film “Fitna,” in which he blasts the Prophet Mohammad and blamed the Qoran for violence and terrorism. In Holland, he has proposed a ban on the burqa, face veils and the Qoran, has voiced his opinion that Muslims should not be allowed to immigrate to Holland, that Muslims should be paid to leave the country and that the government should ban the building of mosques.
In 2009, the UK’s Labour government and the Home Office banned the Dutch MP from entering the UK; the government said his presence would pose a “threat to one of the fundamental interests of society.” The ban was eventually overturned on appeal, after which he traveled to the UK.
Wilders has made numerous visits to the United States where he is a favored speaker at many far-right and anti-Islamic forums.
For his controversial and outspoken views, Wilders has been the target of death threats and as a result, frequently moves between various houses.