Dutch lawmaker cancels blasphemous contest

THE HAGUE (AP) - Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders says he has canceled a planned blasphemous contest following death threats and concerns other people could be put at risk.

In a written statement issued Thursday night, Wilders said “to avoid the risk of victims of violence, I have decided not to let the blasphemous contest go ahead.”

Wilders, who has for years lived under round-the-clock protection because of death threats sparked by his fierce anti-Islam rhetoric, said he does not want others endangered by the contest he planned for November.

The contest was to have been held at the tightly guarded offices of his Party for Freedom in the Dutch parliament building.

The planned contest sparked angry protests in Pakistan and a death threat this week from a 26-year-old man, reportedly a Pakistani, who was arrested Tuesday in The Hague.

Supporters of Pakistani religious group led by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, leader of Tehreek-i-Labaik, launched a march from Lahore toward Islamabad on Wednesday to protest a far-right Dutch lawmaker’s plans to hold blasphemous contest later this year.

Thousands of supporters of the Tehreek-i-Labaik group set out on the march Wednesday, calling on PM Imran Khan to cut diplomatic ties with the Netherlands.

The planned contest sparked angry protests in Pakistan. Protesters shout slogans during a protest In Karachi against the planned sacrilegious contest.