Anti-Islamic Dutch politician cancels Prague visit - Summary

Prague - Anti-Islamic Dutch politician Geert Wilders canceled his planned visit to Prague after his hosts had problems booking a venue for his speech, organizers said Thursday. Wilders was invited to give a speech Monday and show his film Fitna by Eurosceptic Czech senator Jiri Oberfalzer and a Prague-based website critical of the purported Islamization of Europe, eurabia.cz.

Oberfalzer initially invited the 46-year-old Dutch lawmaker to give his talk at the Czech Senate, but the upper house banned the planned lecture.

The hosts then unsuccessfully attempted to secure a private venue. Wilders dropped the Prague talk after owners of two locations canceled reservations at the last minute, Oberfalzer said.

A Muslim group based in Brno, the Czech Republic's second largest city, offered to provide a place but the visit's organizers did not accept it.

The senator said that the hosts managed to book yet another place but Wilders "did not want to risk the fourth cancellation" and preferred to set a new date for his visit.

Wilders, leader of the far-right Party for Freedom, is known for his anti-Islamic views. His controversial film Fitna portrays the Koran as a book inciting violence against non-Muslims.

Earlier this week, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the lawmaker, who planned to take part in a Dutch parliamentary delegation to Turkey, was unwelcome in the largely Muslim country wishing to join the European Union.

In February, authorities barred Wilders from entering Britain, where he was to show his film. But he visited London on October 16 after a court overturned the ban.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/296508,anti-islamic-dutch-politician-cancels-prague-visit--summary.html.