Dutch lawmaker banned from U.K. to take anti-Koran film on 'world tour'

In response to his expulsion from Britain, Dutch legislator Geert Wilders announced yesterday he is taking his controversial film on Islam on "a world tour" - beginning next week with Rome.

On Thursday, British immigration officers detained Wilders at Heathrow Airport and put him on a plane back to the Netherlands. This was done under orders from the Home Office, whose officials said Wilders' presence would disrupt public order.

"This event [in Rome] is part of the 'Facing Jihad' world tour that will serve to expose Islam for what it is, an ideology that preaches terrorism, anti-Semitism and the oppression of women, homosexuals and non-Muslims," Wilders said.

Wilders - who heads the Party for Freedom, a rightist movement of nine seats in parliament - had been invited to show his 17-minute film "Fitna," which he released last year, at the House of Lords in London before being turned back.

In the text of a speech he had intended to deliver at the House of Lords, obtained by Haaretz, Wilders wrote: "Britannia rules the waves, and Islam will never rule Britain, so I was confident the Border Agency would let me through. After all, you have invited stranger creatures than me. Two years ago the House of Commons welcomed Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh, linked to Al Qaeda.

"If you let in this man, then an elected politician from a fellow EU country surely is welcome here too. By letting me speak today you show that Winston Churchill's spirit is still very much alive," he added.

In Holland, Wilders is expected to stand trial for allegedly inciting hatred in the film, and for equating the Koran with Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

The film mostly features footage of hate speeches by Muslim clerics against Jews. It also urges Muslims to "tear out" violent passages from the Koran. Wilders told Haaretz he thought the decision to prosecute him was "a political attack on freedom of expression."

In addition to the screening, the February 19 event in Rome will also see Wilders receiving the Orianna Fallaci Free Speech Award, after the late Italian author and journalist.

The organizers of the Rome event - the Italian nongovernmental civil liberties organization A Way for Orian and the Copenhagen-based International Free Press Society - said the prize will be awarded as a "symbol of the fight against Islamic fascism."

One of the first international screenings of the film and the largest so far was held in Israel in December before a crowd of 600 people. It was also shown at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen, and various locations around the United States.