After allegations of sabotage preventing its broadcast, Geert Wilders three minute film featuring a virtual museum of cartoons of Muhammad finally aired on Dutch television on Wednesday night.
Now cartoons taken from the ‘Draw Muhammad’ competition recently hosted by Pamela Geller in Garland, Texas are being readied for display in Copenhagen, Paris, London and Madrid, although Breitbart London understands it will not be a straightforward matter.
The Copenhagen Post reported the Danish anti-Islamic organisation Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (SIAD) planned to show the Muhammad drawings on 15 August at the Black Diamond, the modern waterfront extension to the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. Chairman and founder of SIAD, Anders Gravers Pedersen, explained that the venue had been selected as a symbolic gesture because Hizb ut-Tahrir have held meetings at the same place. Hizb ut-Tahrir is the international pan-Islamic political organisation which seeks an Islamic caliphate ruled by sharia law.
Contacted by Breitbart London, a Black Diamond employee confirmed that a new venue will need to be found. Although public meeting rooms were booked some weeks ago the purpose of the event was not discussed with the building management. A number of days later a press release publicised the event and the Royal Danish Library decided to cancel the booking. The employee explained that while the library does host exhibitions they are either under their own name or in partnership with other organisations; independent groups cannot book meeting facilities and then host private exhibitions.
Anders Gravers Pedersen told Breitbart London that it is only a setback as SIAD will continue looking for a place to host the event and will not stop until a venue is found. Furthermore, the exhibition will tour other European capitals that have been hit by terror attacks. He said plans are already afoot for events in London and Paris and thereafter he aims to host one in Madrid.
SIAD had planned presentations from various speakers concerning the importance of freedom of expression and democracy as well as a talk from “a well-known artist” assessing the cartoon’s from an artist’s point of view. The group is also commissioning new works portraying Koranic verses, which are not prohibited by Islam, in order to discuss which set of images – the cartoons from Texas or the new verses – is most offensive.
AFP today reported the leading Sunni Muslim seat of learningin Cairo, Al-Azhar, saying Wilders’ broadcast had been intended to “provoke the anger of Muslims” around the world and warned that this would only benefit “terrorism which takes advantage of such incidents to spread violence and destabilize peace and security in the world.”