Amsterdam, January 22: Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders made his first court appearance on Wednesday on charges of inciting racial hatred against Muslims, insisting on his right to speak out about “Islamisation”.
“I know that I sometimes use harsh words,” Wilders, who has famously compared the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, told the Amsterdam district court.
“I have nothing against Muslims. I have a problem with Islam and the Islamisation of our country.”
The 46-year-old MP, creator of the controversial anti-Islam film Fitna, appeared before a panel of judges on Wednesday to work out the modalities for his hate speech trial for which no date has been set.
He told the court, sitting amid heavy security, that “freedom in the Netherlands is under threat”.
“Free people are duty-bound to express themselves against any ideology which threatens that freedom,” contended Wilders, asking the court to acquit him. The lawmaker, who believes his trial is a “political process”, stands accused of five counts of religious insult and anti-Muslim incitement for describing Islam as a fascist religion and calling for the banning of the Koran.
He is also charged for having stated that Moroccan youths were violent, for calling for Dutch borders to be closed to all “non-Western immigrants”, and for advocating an end to what he terms “the Islamic invasion”.
-PTI