The complaint also refers to comments he has made about Islam in the Dutch media, in particular an
open letter published in 2007 calling for the Koran to be outlawed in the Netherlands on the grounds that it contains verses instructing Muslims “to oppress, persecute or kill Christians, Jews, dissidents and non-believers, to beat and rape women and to establish an Islamic state by force.”
As part of the effort to prove his contention that his views on the nature of Islam are accurate, Wilders had wanted the court to hear, in their own words, van Gogh’s unrepentant and Koran-quoting killer as well as two hard-line Iranian ayatollahs, a radical imam based in The Hague, and a controversial Sunni scholar.
Also on his witness list were scholars and researchers specializing in Islam, human rights and law, including a former Muslim who is an expert in shari’a (Islamic law).
The public prosecutor opposed Wilders’ request, and the court on Wednesday agreed that he could only call three of the 18.
One of the three is Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-born critic of Islam who caused an uproar in a 2006 al-Jazeera interview when she spoke of a clash “between civilization and backwardness, chaos and rationality, a conflict between freedom and oppression, democracy and dictatorship, human rights on the one hand and the violation of these rights on the other, between those who treat women like animals, and those who treat them like human beings.”
The other two permitted witnesses are Dutch scholars Hans Jansen, an expert on Islamic fundamentalism; and Simon Admiraal, whose research focuses on radicalization in Arabic sermons.
The judges also ruled that the three witnesses’ testimony would have to be heard behind closed doors.
“Apparently the truth about Islam must remain a secret,” the Wilders trial Web site commented.
In their ruling, the judges said the accused would have ample opportunity to tell the court during the trial how he views its decision to disallow most of the witnesses he had requested.
‘A judgment on Islam’
Among those rejected by the court were:
-- Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the powerful Council of Guardians and current Friday prayer leader in Tehran, who frequently rails against America.
-- Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a former head of Iran’s judiciary, who said in February 2000 that the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 calling for the death of
Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie was “divine” and “irrevocable” and would be carried out, “Allah-willing.”
-- Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Egyptian Sunni scholar controversial for having called Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis justifiable “martyrdom operations.”
Radio Netherlands International reported that “some feared that had the judges allowed all seventeen [sic] defense witnesses, the trial would become a judgment on Islam, rather than a judgment on whether or not Geert Wilders has incited hatred.”
Robert Spencer, author on
The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran and the editor of Jihad Watch – and another of those on Wilders’ list turned down by the court – said Wednesday that Sultan, Jansen and Admiraal would be “excellent” witnesses.
“Nonetheless, this decision indicates the court’s bias against Wilders, and so does not bode well for him,” he commented.
Spencer said the court was “railroading” Wilders.
“He had wanted to call Mohammed Bouyeri, the Qur’an-inspired murderer of Theo Van Gogh, who would have proven his point immediately, and others who would have buttressed the truth of what he has said,” he said. “That the court has hindered his ability to do this shows that the railroad tracks are being laid into place.”