The Dutch prime minister on Friday distanced his government from an anti-Islam cartoon contest being organized later this year by anti-Muslim lawmaker Geert Wilders.<\/p>\n
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The Dutch prime minister on Friday distanced his government from an anti-Islam cartoon contest being organized later this year by anti-Muslim lawmaker Geert Wilders.<\/p>\n
Wilders \u201cis not a member of the government. The competition is not a government initiative,\u201d Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at his weekly press conference, AP reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rutte\u2019s comments came after angry reactions in Pakistan to the proposed contest, which Wilders plans to hold in November in his right-wing Party for Freedom\u2019s heavily guarded offices at the Dutch parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Authorities in Pakistan have lodged a diplomatic protest against Wilders\u2019 plan, calling it an attempt to defame Islam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Opposition lawmaker Wilders is well known for his fierce criticism of Islam and has previously sparked fury in Muslim nations with a film about Islam.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Dutch prime minister on Friday distanced his government from an anti-Islam cartoon contest being organized later this year by anti-Muslim lawmaker Geert Wilders. \u00a0 \u00a0 The Dutch prime minister on Friday distanced his government from an anti-Islam cartoon contest being organized later this year by anti-Muslim lawmaker Geert Wilders. Wilders \u201cis not a member …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[226,271,1136,473,205,220,36],"class_list":["post-6326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-anti-islamic","tag-anti-muslim","tag-dutch","tag-government","tag-muslim","tag-netherlands","tag-pakistan"],"yoast_head":"\n