‘Don’t Listen to Hypocrites’: Meet Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders, Who Defended Nupur Sharma

Geert Wilders, the chairman of the Party for Freedom and a member of the House of Representatives in the Netherlands, on June 7 extended support to suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her controversial statements on Prophet Mohammad and his wife Aisha.

Known for his far-right views on Islam and a host of other issues, Wilders came out in support of Sharma and called for Indians to rally behind her. In a tweet, he also slammed Arab countries for condemning Nupur Sharma’s comments and added that she only spoke the truth about Muhammad.

Sharma’s comments, made during a TV debate nearly 10 days ago, sparked a huge controversy as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Indonesia, Jordan, UAE, Maldives, Oman and Afghanistan joined several Muslim nations in condemning the alleged derogatory remarks.

Geert, actively tweeting in support of Sharma, said that Islamic nations have “no democracy” and they “persecute minorities and disrespect human rights like no one else”. He added that “the ideology of the prophet Mohammed is offensive and abusive”.

Born in 1963, Wilders is the founder of the Party for Freedom – the third-largest party in the Netherlands. He has been the party’s leader in the House of Representatives since 1998.

Due to his far-right views on Islam, he has been one of the focusses of many Islamist terrorist organisations and has been under police security since 2004, a Hindustan Times report said.

The Dutch lawmaker, who ran for the elections in the Netherlands in 2017 but was eventually defeated, said “appeasement” of minorities never works.

“Appeasement never works. It will only make things worse. So, my dear friends from India, don’t be intimidated by Islamic countries. Stand up for freedom and be proud and steadfast in defending your politician Nupur Sharma who spoke the truth about Muhammad,” Wilders said in a tweet.

“Don’t listen to the hypocrites. Islamic nations have no democracy, no rule of law, and no freedom. They persecute minorities and disrespect human rights like no one else. THEY should be criticized! The ideology of #Muhammad is offensive and abusive, not the heroic #NupurSharma!,” another one of the Dutch parliamentarian’s tweet read.

During his campaign for the 2017 prime ministerial polls, Wilders had called for a ban on Islam’s holy book Quran, equating it with Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’.

More recently, in April this year, Twitter suspended Wilders’ account following his tweet mentioning Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that attacked Islam. However, his account was restored a month later. Wilders then “suggested” to Twitter to “look into the thousands of tweets from people of Pakistan and anywhere else who threaten to kill” him because of his views about Islam, instead.

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