Dutch Islamophobe fails to escape trial

Dutch Islamophobe fails to escape trial
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“The attorney general is of the opinion that there are no grounds” for a further appeal, the court said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement comes in response to a request by the lawyers of far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders to overturn a January ruling by the Amsterdam Court of Appeals — the body that ordered the prosecution of Wilders for inciting hatred and encouraging discrimination against Muslims.

In June 2008, Wilders sparked outrage in the Muslim world by publishing an almost 17-minute video with the title Fitna, which featured scenes of terrorist attacks and violence interspersed with selected excerpts of Suras from the Qur’an.

Wilders also owes his ill-reputation largely to his comparison of Islam to Nazism and his calls for a ban on the Qur’an in the Netherlands — a holy book he calls “fascist”.

The Netherlands avoided confronting the Islamophobic lawmaker until complaints from citizens against the Public Prosecution Service’s refusal to press charges against Wilders rose to a breaking point.

The January ruling by the appeals court came after fears that the provocative remarks by Wilders was turning public opinion against European talk of free speech.

In 2008, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also voiced concern over the release of Fitna and called it “offensively anti-Islamic”.

Wilders, who has sought to spread his hate toward Islam in Britain, was earlier denied entry into Britain.

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