LAHORE – Anti-Islam Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who recently cancelledhis infamous blasphemous caricatures contest, has warned Pakistan againstdeclaring an early victory, disclosing his future plans of ‘exposingbarbarism’.
Responding to the statement of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi,Wilders tweeted, “Don’t claim victory too soon @pid_gov I am not finishedwith you yet. I will expose your barbarism in many other ways.”
He reacted to the remarks of FM Qureshi as shared by the government ofPakistan official Twitter account in which he said, “Cancellation ofblasphemous contest is a great moral victory of Muslim Ummah.”
“To avoid the risk of victims of Islamic violence, I have decided not tolet the cartoon contest go ahead,” Wilders said on Thursday in a writtenstatement, claiming to have received death threats.
Wilders, who lived for years under round-the-clock protection because ofdeath threats sparked by his fierce anti-Islam rhetoric, said he did notwant others to be endangered by the contest he had planned for November.
Physical depictions of God or the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) are forbidden inIslam and are considered blasphemous by Muslims. Previous cartoons depictedhim have provoked violence.
In 2005, a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the prophet which sparkeda wave of protests across the world.
Ten years later, gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on the offices ofFrench satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published similarcaricatures.
“It’s not just about me,” Wilders said in the statement. He said strongopponents of the event “see not only me but the entire Netherlands as atarget.”
The Dutch government had been at pains to distance itself from the contest.
The country’s prime minister, Mark Rutte, questioned Wilders’ motive fororganising the contest and said he did not support the planned contest, buthe would defend Wilders right to hold it.
“His aim is not to have a debate about Islam. His aim is to beprovocative,” Rutte said.
However, the prime minister added that people in the Netherlands havefar-reaching freedom of speech rights and the government did not intend toseek the contest’s cancellation.