I'm no bigot, says anti-Islam MP

Geert Wilders, leader of The Party for Freedom, is bringing his anti-Islamisation message to Australia. Picture: Ferguson John Source: The Daily Telegraph

CONTROVERSIAL Dutch MP Geert Wilders has delivered a message to Australia ahead of a series of speaking events across the nation: "I am not the devil."

The anti-Islam campaigner has been allowed to enter the country after the federal government relented and agreed to give him a visa, claiming it did not want to make him a cause celebre by continuing to block his trip.

His inflammatory views have created fiery debate in Europe for years and he is set to deliver the same message in Australia after being invited by the Melbourne-based anti-Islamisation Q Society.

The 49-year-old told News Limited he was not a "monster from Mars", a bigot, an extremist, a racist, a far right-winger - nor anything else he has been labelled.

"I represent one million people in one of the most tolerant and oldest democracies in the world and I address real problems for real people which are ignored by the political elite, and say things about the nation of Islam; for me this is very normal that is what I am," he said.

Mr Wilders said he is a one-man mission to warn Australia of the dangers of Islamic immigration and loss of national identity.

"I hope you can learn from the mistakes we made about immigration and the lack of guts to define Islam for what it is," he said.

Anti-fascist demonstrators react to supporters of Dutch politician Geert Wilders in London, Friday, March 5, 2010. Anti-fascist demonstrators scuffled with police as Wilders brought his film denouncing Islam and the Quran to Britain's august House of Lords. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

"I am not talking about the people (Muslims). I've met very friendly and hospitable people in Arab and Islamic countries. I am talking about the ideology of Islam."

Wilders said he knew of the ANZACs story but warned the spirit that propelled our nation years ago was at risk of being lost.

"I believe Islam and freedom and incompatible and I think we should be awake to this terrible ideology that is coming to our countries and societies and getting stronger, stronger, stronger and we are not fighting it we are appeasing, appeasing, appeasing and we lost track of what we really are and what we should be and what our grandparents, also in Australia with the Anzacs, what they fought and died for to liberate Europe," he said.

Wilders, who controls the balance of power in the Dutch parliament as leader of the fourth largest political party, is scheduled to speak in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

The Islamic Friendship Association has said the Muslim community have the right to peacefully protest the speaking events but recommended people simply ignore Mr Wilders visit so as not to draw further attention to his extremist messages.

Wilders says his views are not popular but he felt someone had to say something and he had nothing to lose.

In 2004, two assassins armed with grenades were caught after an hour-long siege in the Hague plotting to murder the platinum-blond Wilders.

He has a small army of bodyguards who watch him around the clock and has to live in various safehouses and even an army barracks and prison facility and at one stage could only see his family once a week.

He continues to receive death threats with a fatwa declared.
He had been banned from the UK but eventually was allowed in but then had to move his speaking tour due to protests.

He has also been prosecuted in civil and criminal courts in the Netherlands over his "race hate" views but he was acquitted with the courts declaring what he was saying was not illegal.

He says he doesn't think his presence in Australia would interrupt the federal election and no politician wanted to meet him anyway but he hoped the issue of Islam could be discussed.

"In the interest of the parties in Australia, if I may give them one advice, to address the problem not label anything talking about culture and Islam as extreme or far right or whatever they are saying," he said.

"People must be represented, problems must be addressed and solutions must be found and by ignoring the problem or labeling people as crazy or devils if they talk about it or come and visit won't help them anyway."
 

 

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