Time to take Geert Wilders seriously

The Controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders is feeling pretty confident after his freedom party gained ground in local elections, seeting the stage for parliamentary elecitons in June: 

"Today Almere and The Hague, tomorrow the whole of the Netherlands. This is our springboard for success in parliamentary elections," Wilders said as the returns came in.

"We’re going to take the Netherlands back from the leftist elite that coddles criminals and supports Islamization," said Wilders, who campaigned in Almere for banning Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public.

On Friday Wilder will travel to Britain — from which he was banned last year — to show his anti-Islam film Fitna in parliament at the invitation of the U.K. independence party. He also showed his film at the Capitol last year at the invitation of Sen. Jon Kyl.

The efforts to shut Wilders up — prosecuting him for hate speech, banning him from traveling, not to mention the numerous death threats he’s received — have clearly not worked. Wilders has only used them to his advantage portraying himself as a free-speech martyr. As odious as opponents may find his views, Wilders clearly has a growing constituency and  mainstream Dutch politicians are going to have to find a way to defeat his arguments in the cout of public opinion, rather than criminal courts. He’s not just a sideshow anymore.