Last month, the notorious Khadim Hussain Rizvi was arrested by the Pakistani Police along with scores of members of his Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). Later, it was reported that Rizvi has been booked under charges of sedition and terrorism.
Yesterday, controversial Dutch politician and a Member of Netherlands’ Parliament, Geert Wilders, thanked Pakistani Prime Minister for arresting Rizvi who had put a Fatwa on his head.
https://twitter.com/geertwilderspvv/status/1079418485699170305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Wilders is a known vocal critic of Islam He has been quoted in an interview as saying “I don’t hate Muslims, I hate Islam.” He said in the same interview, “Islam is not a religion, it’s an ideology, the ideology of a retarded culture.”
In June, Wilders had announced Prophet Muhammad cartoon competition to be held at his party’s parliamentary offices. Later in August, he was forced to cancel the event after threats of terrorist violence became too significant.
The events were cancelled after thousands of supporters of TLP took to the streets of Pakistan calling for the expulsion of the Dutch ambassador and for diplomatic ties with the Netherlands to be severed. The Pakistani government, trying to take credit for the cancellation of the event, called it a “great moral victory for the Muslim Ummah” and a that “major crisis” had been averted.
The replies to the tweet by Wilders mentioned above are symptomatic of the constant threat he has been living in ever since he started criticizing Islam. The replies are filled with death threats from Muslims in Pakistan.
https://twitter.com/ashraf_chaudhry/status/1079447935551766538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/MZubairAdv5/status/1079439861780746240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/AliAhma62648079/status/1079548871615893504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/MFarhanNasar2/status/1079605599728480256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Some were even saying that they will be glad to murder him.
https://twitter.com/ghulamrabbani/status/1079454139472580608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Others interpreted Wilders’ cancellation of the event as an affirmation of the strength of the Ummah.
https://twitter.com/RajaQadir18/status/1079442791908945925?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The replies to the tweet showed an overwhelming love for the Islamist leader and a certain dissatisfaction with Imran Khan for having him arrested.
Such threats are often very real, as we witnessed in the Charlie Hebdo massacre, where people were murdered for drawing cartoons of the Islamic prophet.