Wilders 'anti-Islam' trial to go ahead

[pampango]

Source: Aljazeera

Dutch court has ruled it would go ahead with the trial of politician Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims, rejecting a request to dismiss the case.

The case has attracted considerable attention, not just because of Wilders' controversial comments, but also because of the increasing influence of his Freedom Party, which provides support for the minority government on key issues.

Wilders has argued that he is exercising his freedom of speech when he criticises Islam and had won the right last month to seek a dismissal of the case. But reading out the ruling, judge Marcel van Oosten, said the case would go ahead.

The prosecution case focuses on the short film Fitna, which catapulted Wilders to international notoriety in 2008 and in which he mixes Koranic verses with footage of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York. In the film he also likened the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf.


Judges, prosecutors and defence agreed for the trial against Wilders to resume on April 13 with key testimonies

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/03/201133010314760958.html

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Dutch Freedom Party Platform

The Party for Freedom combines economic liberalism with a conservative programme on immigration and culture. The party seeks tax cuts (€16 billion in the 2006 election programme), de-centralisation, abolition of the minimum wage, and limiting child benefits and government subsidies. Regarding immigration and culture, the party believes that the Judeo-Christian and humanist traditions should be taken as the dominant culture in the Netherlands, and that immigrants should adapt accordingly. The party wants a halt to immigration from non-Western countries. It is sceptical towards the EU, is against future EU enlargement to countries like Turkey and opposes a dominant presence of Islam in the Netherlands.<32> The party is also opposed to dual citizenship (see below).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_for_Freedom