Wilders has faced repeated legal problems in the Netherlands, with its speech laws that are considerably stricter than the United States’.
In 2011, he was acquitted of inciting hatred against Muslims after calling for a “head rag tax” and arguing that foreigners “breeding” in the Netherlands were overrunning Dutch culture. Perhaps his most infamous statement is this: that “the core of the problem is the fascist Islam, the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed as laid down in the Islamic Mein Kampf: the Koran.”
Mohamed Rabbae, chairman of the moderate National Moroccan Council, called the comments racist and discriminatory, while Wilders defended them as “freedom of expression.” A judge said they were “crude and denigrating” — but not tantamount to incitement.
In December, Wilders was convicted by a three-judge panel of inciting discrimination and insulting a group of Moroccans after leading a political rally where he posed this question, The New York Times reported: “Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?” “Fewer, fewer, fewer,” the crowd chanted. Wilders then replied: “We’ll take care of it.”
The judges acquitted Wilders of inciting hatred, however, and imposed no fine, The Times reported.
Wilders, who is appealing the decision, was also once banned from entering Britain, although he later sued and the decision was overturned.
