The visit of radical anti-Muslim Dutch politician Geert Wilders to the UK, who brought his controversial movie with him, has caused rallies in the center of London against the visit.
The film calls The Koran a “fascist book,” and was posted on the internet in 2008. It sparked widespread outrage, and not just in the Islamic world.
Angry protests occurred in central London and people who gathered there showed very clearly they are against Wilders’ visit to the capital of Great Britain. They accused the Dutch politician of dehumanizing the two millions of Muslims of Britain like the Nazis did to the Jews in Germany. The vast majority of the British Muslims are working people, the protesters pointed out, and they have every right to be treated with decency and respect and not subject to a witch hunt.
This visit of the Dutch politician is being sponsored by the United Kingdom Independence Party. They think it is important that Wilders gets to come to London and show his film. They think that the message of his film is worth seeing.
Nigel Farage from the United Kingdom Independence Party told RT that he himself is not a fan of Wilders.
“I do not agree with him that in the interest of free speech the Koran should be banned,” Farage said. “I mean that does not make sense to me at all. But I do think Wilders’ coming to London is enormously useful. We have people saying that we must not discuss Islamic radicalization for fear of causing offense. You know, we have seen the events in Madrid, we have seen the events in America, we have seen the events with the London Tube bombings – there is a problem with radicalization and it does need to be discussed,” argued Farage.
Wilders’ star is on the rise in The Netherlands. His right wing Freedom Party recently gained quite a significant victory in the local elections, which is a good indicator of what will happen in the national elections, which are not so far away. So that he came to London to spread his message is a significant event, and the violent reaction it caused is the additional confirmation of this fact.