Wilders describes suspect as 'violent and sick'

PETER CLUSKEY in The Hague

DUTCH REACTION: GEERT Wilders, one of Europe’s most high-profile right-wing political leaders, attempted last night to distance himself from Anders Behring Breivik, describing the man arrested for the twin attacks in Norway as “violent and sick”.

A 1,500-page document which appears to have been written by Breivik makes several complimentary references to Mr Wilders and his Freedom Party (PVV) whose aggressive anti-Muslim stance propelled it to third-largest political party in the Netherlands after the 2010 general election.

The PVV supports Holland’s minority Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition – whose government agenda includes a ban on the burqa, expected to come into effect in 2012, a 50 per cent cut in non-western immigration, and stronger police powers.

In the document, written under the name Anders Berwick, Breivik quotes Mr Wilders several times and is particularly supportive of Wilders’s controversial 2008 film, Fitna – Arabic for “dissention” – which mixes Koranic verse with video footage of extremist attacks.

The 17-minute-long film was one of the issues at the centre of a court case earlier this month in which Mr Wilders was cleared of inciting hatred against Muslims. Read the rest on: 

IrishTimes.com