Dutch MP Geert Wilders comes uk.

[Spursman]

Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who has been accused of Islamophobia, faces trial in his own country for inciting hatred.

Nicknamed "Mozart" because of his mane of platinum blond hair, he was voted politician of the year in 2007 by the Dutch political press, partly because of his "well-timed one-liners".

But his opponents see him as a provocateur.

The British government has tried to ban the Freedom Party leader from the UK on the grounds that he poses a threat to public security - a move later overruled by the courts.

He had tried to visit the UK in February 2009 to show his controversial film Fitna - roughly translated as "strife" in Arabic - which links the Koran to terrorism, but was turned back at Heathrow airport.

No TV company would broadcast the 17-minute film, which some Dutch politicians tried to ban before Mr Wilders posted it on the internet in March 2008.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen complained the furore over Fitna could endanger Dutch companies, soldiers and residents abroad.

That followed Denmark's experience in 2006, when the publication of Danish cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad sparked protests across the Muslim world.

'Not my problem'

Former colleagues describe Mr Wilders as a 24/7 politician with no time for other interests.


I despise violence - I just want a debate

Geert Wilders
Speaking to the BBC in October 2009
He lives under police protection because of earlier death threats, and has told the BBC his intention has only ever been "to have a debate about freedom of speech and the threat of Islamisation of our Western societies".

"It's not my intention to have anything at all to do with violence. On the contrary, I despise violence - I just want a debate."

The Dutch MP had upset the Muslim world before Fitna, by calling for a ban on the Koran and likening it to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

When asked about the impact of his film in 2008, Mr Wilders said: "It's not the aim of the movie but people might be offended, I know that. So, what the hell? It's their problem, not my problem."

'Mozart'

Born in the Limburg town of Venlo in 1963, Geert Wilders came from a Catholic background and went to a Catholic secondary school.


Filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed in 2004
He is no longer religious and once told a friend he knew little about Easter, despite regularly speaking out on the Netherlands' Judaeo-Christian heritage.

The son of a printing company director, his own career began in social and health insurance. It was socio-economic policy that brought him into politics, as a speech-writer for the liberal VVD party.

He was elected as city councillor in Utrecht in 1997 and MP the following year.

Because of his party's support for Turkish entry into the European Union, he left the liberals in 2002 and struck out on his own.

He has prompted comparisons with Pim Fortuyn, the maverick political leader who famously described Islam as a backward religion. Fortuyn was murdered by an animal rights activist in 2002, shortly before an election.

Racist or not?

But it was in November 2004 that Mr Wilders' career dramatically changed after the murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh by a radical Islamist, Mohammed Bouyeri.

Together with ethnic Somali politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Van Gogh had produced the short film Submission, which featured an actress in see-through clothing with Koranic script on her body.


Geert Wilders speaking on BBC Hardtalk in August 2008
Although he had no involvement in the film, Mr Wilders was given a permanent bodyguard, as was Ms Hirsi Ali, because of their outspoken views on Islam.

Mr Wilders set up his Freedom Party (PVV), later attracting widespread political support for his call for a ban on the burka, the Muslim garment that covers most of the body.

His greatest success was in picking up nine seats in the Dutch parliament in the 2006 elections, and securing 20% of the vote in his home town of Venlo.

But he has never achieved the same high ratings in the opinion polls as the late Pim Fortuyn.

Mr Wilders is adamant that he is not a racist. "We have to learn and defend who we are," he says.

He is married to a Hungarian woman he met at the Hungarian embassy in The Hague.

'Intolerant of the intolerant'

Mr Wilders' politics were not always about Islam. In 2005, he was one of the leading campaigners for a Dutch No vote against the European Constitution, arguing that it limited national sovereignty.

In March 2006, he told the BBC that he thought that 5-15% of Dutch Muslims were sympathetic to radical Islam.

"I believe we have been too tolerant of the intolerant. We should learn to become intolerant of the intolerant," he said.

"People like Mohammed Bouyeri who killed Theo van Gogh, they should be arrested under administrative detention for the safety of Dutch families."

He has seen administrative detention without trial used in Israel, which he has visited on many occasions.

After the release of Fitna, the Dutch Muslim community reacted to Mr Wilders in different ways, according to then-National Moroccan Council Chairman Mohamed Rabbae.

He said some saw the MP as a friend of Israel, some saw him as an opportunist promoting fear and hate, while a minority did not see him as an enemy at all, but rather "as a kind of Don Quixote, fighting against things and presenting goals which will never happen".

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