19 March 2008

COPENHAGEN - Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen rejected praise from controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders and condemned Wilders' "sickening" and "coarse" remarks about Muslims.

In an interview published Wednesday in the Danish daily Jyllands Posten, Rasmussen was responding to remarks by Wilders during a visit to Copenhagen earlier in the week praising the Danish leader for his "courageous defence" of freedom of expression.  
Rasmussen said he strongly distanced himself "from Wilders' debasing remarks about Muslims," and called Wilders' views "incredibly sickening."

Wilders, the Dutch politician controversial for his anti-Islam views and plans to release a film about the Koran, had called Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende a "coward" for his critical stance against the film project. Wilders wants to ban the Koran, comparing it with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf."

"Wilders' comments about Muslims are so coarse, that I would not want to see any group in Danish society attacked in such a way," the Copenhagen leader told Jyllands Posten.

[Copyright dpa 2008]