Britain refuses entry to Dutch anti-Islam politician (Roundup)

Feb 12, 2009, 16:23 GMT

London - A right-wing Dutch politician who has publicly denounced the Koran as a 'fascist book' was refused entry to Britain Thursday, sparking diplomatic tensions between the two European Union (EU) member states.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the liberal-rightist Freedom Party PVV, had been invited by members of Britain's House of Lords to show his controversial anti-Islamist film Fitna to an invited audience.

But despite an official protest from the Dutch government against the entry ban, immigration officials Thursday detained Wilders on his arrival at London Heathrow airport on the grounds that his presence in Britain would be a threat to public security.

In an interview with the BBC, Wilders Thursday described British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the 'biggest coward in Europe' by not allowing free speech.

He said he had been detained on arrival, had his passport taken away and was told 'in 45 seconds' that he would be returned to the Netherlands.

The Dutch ambassador to Britain, Pim Waldeck, who had earlier made representations at the Foreign Office and the Home Office in London, was at the airport to meet Wilders.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Thursday defended the decision to ban Wilders. While Britain was totally committed to free speech, it would use legislation to exclude anyone who came to incite racial and religious hatred.

Officials from the European Commission, the EU's executive, said that member states have the right to refuse entry to EU citizens on the grounds of public order, security or health.

However, they had to explain to the would-be traveller the reasons for the refusal and grant them the right to appeal, commission justice spokesman Michele Cercone said.

Commission officials refused to comment directly on the Wilders case, saying that it was up to member states to make their own risk assessments.

The travel ban received solid backing from Muslim groups in Britain, who described Wilders as an 'open and relentless preacher of hate.'

Nazir Ahmed, a Muslim Labour peer in the House of Lords, said: 'If this man was allowed into this country it would certainly cause problems within communities around Britain.'

However, the man who invited Wilders, House of Lords member Malcolm Pearson, insisted that it was wrong to suppress free speech 'on one of the most important issues of our time.'

He said the film would be shown at the scheduled gathering anyway Thursday.

Pearson, who is a member of the anti-foreigner UK Independence Party, accused the Brown government of 'appeasing violent Islam.'

It was important that the majority of moderate Muslims in Britain should be engaged in a debate about Islamic fundamentalism and the use of the Koran for the pursuit of violent goals.

Wilders' 16-minute film caused outrage across the Muslim world when it was posted on the internet last year.

Its opening scenes juxtapose a copy of the Koran with images of major terrorist attacks, including September 11 in the US and the Madrid and London bombings in 2004 and 2005.

It warns against the spread of radical Islam and the alleged 'Islamization' of the Netherlands.

In December, Wilders announced in a newspaper interview that he would travel abroad to create 'international alliances for peace and against Islamization.'

Wilders, who is facing trial in his home country for inciting hatred, said Thursday that, as a democratically-elected politician, he was an advocate of free speech.

'I have no choice,' he said about his enforced return to the Netherlands. 'It is a sad day.'