According to what I heard, Geert Wilders is launching a short movie where he is comparing the Quran with Hitler’ s Mein Kampf. ? What a silly provocation! What a stupid statement apparently fed by an ocean of religious and historical ignorance! Silence is the best response to such a behavior!
This kind of comparison would be an offence to any religion. It is so extreme that anyone canunderstand that the purpose is to provoke a reaction and thus to get media coverage and attention. This is plain populism : having no serious real social policy, he is trying to get voters by using their fears! This is so clear that the Muslims must let it be as it is : Geert Wilders is now revealing his true nature and the best response is to ignore him.The worst he can expect is indeed not reaction, silence!..
Yet we know that in these times of tensions, anything could happen. Governments in the Muslim majority countries, groups, politicians can use it for the sake of other political games. As it happened with the Danish cartoon crisis, some governments and/or religious organizations (radical or not) instrumentalised the whole story to mobilize the people either to divert them from the true problems in their own countries or to get popular support by attacking "the West" represented as "the enemy". An uncontrolled over emotional reaction is always possible and some can shape it through some inflammatory statements or kinds of a "protest orchestration" (by some governments or organizations). Thus no one can predict where it is going to end.
People have learned from the cartoon crisis and many will try to calm down the atmosphere but some other presidents or leaders have other agendas and this kind of crisis is very much an opportunity. Actually it is exactly what Geert Wilders himself is looking for! One may hope that the fact that Geert Wilders is known (and that it is clearly a provocation) would help the people to understand it is a trap and refuse to be driven into it. This would be the best scenario.
The Dutch government need to have a preemptive policy built on a clear discourse that the government is not supporting (or even rejecting or condemning) the film and its content but it does not want to interfere in the name of freedom of expression. If any ambassador or politician from a Muslim majority country is asking for an audience, she or he should be received and this positioning should be clearly stated. Wilders should not be prevented from speaking, or be put in jail (as some have suggested) : one should only respond to his argument when there is argument and simply ignore him when he is acting out of provocation.
