Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders said on Sunday he has ended a contest for blasphemous cartoons, only hours after announcing the contentious event.
In a tweet posted on Sunday morning, Wilders said international attention on the contest ‘has enabled him to make a point about the importance of freedom of speech’. “Mission accomplished. End of contest,” he wrote on Twitter.
Wilders had cancelled a similar contest in August last year after police arrested a man who had threatened to kill him over his plan. At the time, plans to hold the contest also prompted large demonstrations in Pakistan and Wilders said he felt ‘the danger of violence against innocent people was too great’.
Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party is the second largest in Dutch parliament, but is not part of the government.
