Geert Wilders Will Not Be Silenced

We just need a couple of Geert Wilders in every Western country. Reuters

In the months before the film's release, Wilders has sat back and watched as protests spread and temperatures rose, to the alarm of the Dutch government.

Meanwhile support for his Freedom party has grown among an electorate wary of the consequences of the film but largely supportive of his right to free expression.

....

Having first appealed to Wilders not to show the film, then considered banning it, the Dutch government has been forced to marshal European support for the likely fall-out, and plan both an overseas charm offensive and campaign of damage limitation.

While the government braces for a repeat of the violence sparked in 2006 by the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, an indignant Wilders has washed his hands of all responsibility and blamed the prime minister for his panicked response.

Wilders, who has warned of a "tsunami of Islamisation" in a country which is home to almost 1 million Muslims, is expected to air the film at the end of the month on the Web site www.fitnathemovie.com, making it available to audiences worldwide.

He has given few details about the content of his 15-minute film, which no television broadcaster is prepared to air, leaving people to infer it will take a similar tone to his earlier pronouncements on Islam.

"Islam is a violent religion. If Mohammad lived here today I could imagine chasing him out of the country tarred and feathered as an extremist," Wilders said in an interview with De Pers daily last year.