A far-right Dutch politician has been refused entry to the UK after landing at Heathrow Airport.
Geert Wilders had been due to show his 17-minute film Fitna, which criticises the Koran as a ‘fascist book’, in the House of Lords.
But on Tuesday he received a letter from the Home Office saying he would not be allowed to come to Britain because his opinions ‘would threaten community security and therefore public security’ in the UK.
Mr Wilders, leader of Holland's Freedom Party, condemned the British Government as ‘weak and cowardly’ and vowed he would make the trip anyway.
He arrived at Heathrow's Terminal 1 on a BMI flight from Amsterdam at 2pm and was taken into a side room by immigration officials.
The politician told the Associated Press he was being returned to Holland.
‘I will go. I will get into the plane tomorrow and fly to London Heathrow and I will see what will happen, if indeed the British government will arrest me or detain me or send me back or do whatever,’ he said yesterday.
‘But I will not and I cannot accept that in the European Union that elected politicians who have not been sentenced for any crime, or anything else, that they are refused,’ he said.
Government letter
Mr Wilders says the British government had sent him a letter saying it believed his statements about ‘Muslims and their beliefs, as expressed in your film 'Fitna' and elsewhere, would threaten community harmony and therefore public security in the United Kingdom.’
Mr Wilders faces prosecution by an Amsterdam court for inciting hatred and discrimination.
Britain's Home Office confirmed that Mr Wilders had been refused entry to Britain but declined to comment on his plan to defy the ban.
‘The government opposes extremism in all its forms. It will stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country,’ a Home Office spokesman said.
Mr Wilders' film urged Muslims to tear out ‘hate-filled’ verses from the Koran and he has compared Islam to Nazism.
Malcolm Pearson, a member of Britain's upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords, who had invited Mr Wilders, told the BBC he would show the film to legislators on Thursday ‘with or without Wilders’.
The Netherlands has complained to Britain about Mr Wilders' exclusion on the grounds that Dutch members of parliament should be able to travel freely in the European Union, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen said in a statement.
The Netherlands has condemned the film, which was aired over the Internet last March, and distanced itself from its content, saying the film served no other purpose than causing offence.
