HAARETZ: 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. >>> By Cnaan Liphshitz | Friday, February 13, 2009
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