Judges ruled that although Mr Wilders, whose anti-Islam Freedom Party came third in Dutch national elections last year, had made "hurtful and shocking", his comments were legitimate in terms of a lively Dutch public debate on multiculturalism.
Mr Wilders, 47, was put on trial after complaints of incitement to racial hatred were levelled against him by Muslims after he released a film which presented Islam as the biggest threat to world peace.
Fitna, meaning "strife" in Arabic, juxtaposed pages of the Koran with images of September 11 2001 terrorist attacks and fundamentalist burka clad Muslims with placards warning Europe to "be prepared for the real holocaust".
The flamboyant, peroxide blond Dutch MP, who now holds the balance of power in the Netherlands by lending parliamentary support to the minority government, also described the Koran as "fascist", comparing it to Hitler's book Mein Kampf, a text that is banned in the Netherlands.
In one opinion piece cited during the trial, he wrote: "I've had enough of Islam in the Netherlands; let not one more Muslim immigrate." » | Bruno Waterfield | Thursday, June 23, 2011
