Muslims: Wilders’ plan to broadcast cartoons is provocation

FILE - In this April 13, 2015 file photo Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders as he speaks at a rally of so-called 'Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West' (PEGIDA) in Dresden, Germany. Geert Wilders says on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 he plans to show cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on Dutch television airtime reserved for political parties after Parliament refused to display them, in a move likely to deeply offend Muslims. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File) FILE - In this April 13, 2015 file photo Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders as he speaks at a rally of so-called 'Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West' (PEGIDA) in Dresden, Germany. Geert Wilders says on Wednesday, June 3, 2015 he plans to show cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on Dutch television airtime reserved for political parties after Parliament refused to display them, in a move likely to deeply offend Muslims. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)

By Associated Press June 4, 2015 1 min read

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Moderate Dutch Muslims are calling anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’s plan to broadcast cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on national television a provocation.

But there was no sign of outrage or unrest Thursday, the day after Wilders announced his plan and it appears that followers of Islam in the Netherlands may be growing accustomed to his fierce criticism of their faith.

Lawyer Ejder Koese, who once represented a Muslim organization that tried unsuccessfully to have a short film made by Wilders banned, says the lack of public anger comes because Muslims in the Netherlands “are no longer easy to offend.”

Wilders’ anti-Islam rhetoric has in the past sparked outrage in the Muslim world and prompted death threats that have led to him living under round-the-clock protection.