Netherlands: Anti-Islam Geert Wilders to be prosecuted for 'inciting hatred against Moroccans'

A Dutch politician who has often caused outrage with his anti-Islam comments will be prosecuted in the Netherlands for his allegedly racist remarks, Reuters reported.

Geert Wilders was accused of discriminating and inciting hatred against Moroccans during the election campaigning in March.

In one occasion, Wilders led an anti-Moroccan chant in a cafe in which he asked his supporters whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in their city.

When the supporters chanted: "Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!", Wilders responded: "We'll take care of that."

Following the episode, the Grouping of Dutch-Moroccans Foundation (SMN) said it was to take legal action against Wilders.

"Today we are meeting police where we'll file a discrimination-based complaint against Wilders," Habib el Kaddouri, a coordinator for SMN, told AFP in March. "We believe by targeting a specific group, Wilders this time has gone too far."

Prosecutors said Wilders will be tried as he "insulted a specific group based on race and incited discrimination and hatred".

Following the prosecution's statement, Wilders defended himself by saying that he had spoken "the truth".

"I said what millions of people think and believe. The public prosecutors should be going after jihadis instead of me. The PVV [Party for Freedom, right-wing political party] is the largest party in the polls and the elite apparently doesn't like it."

Wilders' anti-Islam comments

Following the attack carried out by the Pakistani Taliban in a Peshawar school in which 148 people, of whom 132 were children, were killed, Wilders wrote a Twitter post calling for an end to Islam.

Just a day before, when an Iranian extremist held dozens of people captive in a Lindt Cafe in Sydney, Wilders took to Twitter again to compare Islam to terrorism.

He also called called for Dutch Muslims who support radical Islamic groups such as Islamic State (Isis) to be removed from the country and banned from re-entry and said the Netherlands "has become victim of Islam".

In 2009, he claimed "I don't hate Muslims, I hate Islam" and that "there is no such a thing as moderate Islam".

He also likened the Quran, which he called a "fascist book", to Hitler's Mein Kampf and called for a national ban of the book.

Because of his outspoken views, Wilders has been under police protection since 2004 and has had a number of death threats since the founding of the PVV.

In 2010, a radical Australian Muslim cleric called for Muslims to kill Wilders and "chop off his head" for disparaging Islam.