Dutch MP advocates proscription of Koran

August 8, 2007

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.