ANTAGONISTIC

Dutch Anti-Islam Politician Geert Wilders Revives Cartoon Contest to Mock Prophet Mohammed

He invited people to send caricatures of the prophet because “freedom of speech must prevail over violence and Islamic fatwas.”

Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders announced on Twitter that he plans to revive a cartoon competition caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed more than a year after he cancelled the competition amid death threats. Wilders, who is the leader of the largest opposition party in Dutch parliament, has campaigned on an anti-Islamic platform. He called for entries to the cartoon competition in a Twitter post late Saturday, writing “Freedom of speech must prevail over violence and Islamic fatwas.” Images of the prophet are generally forbidden in Islam, and caricatures are extremely offensive. In 2015, Islamist extremists killed 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, which had frequently published satirical cartoons of Mohammed. In 2005, Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of the prophet that sparked deadly demonstrations across the Muslim world.