Netherlands' Wilders to broadcast more Prophet Muhammad images

BRUSSELS 

Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilder is set to broadcast more cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on Dutch public television, he announced on Monday.

The fresh broadcast on July 3 follows images of Muhammad broadcast by Wilders on national television on June 24 during programming reserved for political parties. Both broadcasts fall during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan.

Wilders, who leads the Dutch Party for Freedom, claimed before the last broadcast that he was airing the cartoons to defend freedom of speech.

“Islam and terrorists do not want us to expose these cartoons,” Wilder said in a video. “But terror and violence are not allowed to win over freedom of speech. That’s why we have to do what terrorists try to impede us from doing.”

Geert had uploaded the same video to YouTube showing nine caricatures of Prophet Muhammad that were displayed at an exhibition in Garland, Texas, earlier this year. Wilders was a speaker at the event, which was attacked by two gunmen who were killed by police.

Prophet Muhammad's depiction is considered highly offensive to the beliefs of the world's nearly 1.6 billion Muslims.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry has said in the past that Wilder’s opinions do not represent the government's official position.

Wilders currently faces prosecution in the Netherlands for discrimination and hate speech following comments about Dutch nationals of Moroccan origin.