Dutch anti-Islam party to hold Prophet
Mohammad cartoon competition
AN ANTI-ISLAM party is to hold a competition to draw cartoons
depicting Prophet Mohammad, a move that is set to create outrage among the most
fervent Muslims in the country.
Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders is to hold a Prophet
Muhammad cartoon competition at his party’s parliamentary offices.
The Party for Freedom (PVV), which
has previously called for the Quran to be banned, said the contest had been
approved by the country’s counter-terrorism agency.
Drawings will be judged by
American cartoonist Bosch Fawstin, winner of a similar competition in Texas
three years ago that was targeted by two Muslim gunmen.
Many Muslims consider images of Prophet Muhammad to
be blasphemous, and cartoons depicting him have previously provoked violent
responses.
“Freedom of speech is threatened,
especially for Islam critics,” Mr Wilders said. “We should never accept that.
Freedom of speech is our most important freedom.”
The far-right MP claims Islam is a totalitarian political
ideology rather than a religion. He has previously called for mosques and Islamic
schools to be shut downand for a blanket ban on Muslim immigrants.
In 2016 he was convicted of
inciting hatred and discrimination after asking supporters whether they wanted
“fewer or more Moroccans” in their country.
When the crowd shouted back
“fewer”, a smiling Mr Wilders answered: “Then we’ll fix it.”
The PVV, which is the leading
opposition party in the Netherlands after coming second in elections last
March, said the cartoon competition would be held in the autumn after getting
the go-ahead from the NCTV counter-terrorism agency.
The party is offering a €5,000
(£4,400) prize for the winner.
“Muslims can be offended to death.
That’s not the problem,” tweeted Mr Fawstin, who is publishing a book of
cartoons of the prophet. “Muslims MURDERING over cartoons is the problem. And
that has to be defied by drawing Mohammad.”
Two gunmen from Arizona were shot
dead by police as they tried to storm the 2015 competition won by the
cartoonist in Garland, Texas.
That contest was held four months after Islamist gunmen murdered 12
people at the Paris offices of the French satirical
newspaper Charlie
Hebdo, which had printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten provoked
protests across the world and riots in some Muslim countries by publishing
several cartoons of Muhammad, including one depicting the prophet with a
bomb in his turban.
The newspaper’s editor had invited
submissions from illustrators in what he described as an examination of Islam
and self-censorship.
Source: reuters, independent,
express
