"Wilders is inciting hate"
8 August 2007
THE HAGUE – A lawyer from Lelystad reported to police on Wednesday to bring a case against Geert Wilders. Els Lucas says that the politician's letter published in the Volkskrant on Wednesday incites hate between population groups.
In the letter Wilders compares the Koran with Hitler's Mein Kampf and urges that the holy book of Islam be banned. "I think that is really taking it too far. Moreover it is unseemly that a member of Parliament is expressing himself in this manner," Lucas said.
In a reaction the leader of the PVV called the lawyer's action "very sad." "I do not want to incite hate; I want the Koran to be banned. That is a political opinion. I am in Parliament in order to express my political opinion," Wilders said.
Lucas objects to the tone of the whole article. That is why she went to the police station with a copy of the article and "a pile of legal texts."
One of the points she objects to is the fact that Wilders' urging that no more Muslim immigrants be admitted to the Netherlands is in violation of the Aliens Act. The lawyer filed the report in a personal capacity.
A spokesperson for the public prosecution department in Lelystad confirmed on Wednesday that the report has been received and said that the public prosecutor would look into it immediately.
[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]
Subject: Dutch news
In a letter published this morning in the paper ''de Volkskrant'', Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders advocated proscribing the Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam.

The right-wing politician, who is the leader of the Party for Freedom, compared the Muslim holy book with Adolf Hitler’s book ''Mein Kampf'', which is currently one of the few books proscribed in the Netherlands today. 

According to Wilders, the Qur'an is "a fascist book" that promotes violence and should only be allowed for academic studies. In the letter, Wilders stated that the people who had beaten up local politician Ehsan Jami had been inspired by the Qur'an and that he was ashamed of "the cowards" in the political capital The Hague. Wilders said that he probably will not get a majority in parliament for the proscription, but he will not let that stop him from introducing legislation to this effect.

On the same day the letter ran in ''de Volkskrant'', Els Lucas, a lawyer from Lelystad, filed a police complaint against Wilders, saying that the politician is inciting hatred between groups within the population.

Responding to the news of the police report, Wilders said "I do not want to incite hate; I want the Koran to be banned. That is a political opinion. I am in Parliament in order to express my political opinion."

A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office in Lelystad confirmed receipt of the complaint and said the office would investigate the report.

Since his election to parliament in 1997, Wilders has been in Dutch news a number of times with statements about immigration and the Islam. In 2004, he left right-wing liberal party People's Party for Freedom and Democracy to set up his own party. In the election of 2006, his party won 9 seats in the Dutch parliament which has 150 seats.