Dutch politician Geert Wilders, a prominent critic of Islam who was keynote speaker at the “Draw Muhammad” contest in Texas where two gunmen opened fire and were killed Sunday, is coming to Palm Beach County as a guest of the local GOP this summer.
Wilders is scheduled to speak at the Palm Beach County Republican Party’s annual Lobsterfest fundraising dinner on Aug. 15 in Boca Raton.
Wilders — who said in his Texas speech that he is “on death lists of Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban and terrorists from ISIS because I tell people the truth about Islam” — travels with his own security detail, Palm Beach County GOP Chairman Michael Barnett said.
Barnett said the Republican Party has also arranged for extra security at the dinner at Boca West Country Club and that safety will be a top concern.
Wilders spoke Sunday at the event in Garland, Texas, in which artists were invited to draw cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad for a $10,000 prize. Physical depictions of Muhammad are considered blasphemous to many Muslims and were cited by Islamic terrorists as justification for killing 12 people in January at the office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
“All of you are not only talented but also very brave. For Islam has put a death sentence on depicting Muhammad,” Wilders said in his speech, the text of which is posted on his blog. “But this has not frightened you. And even if it did, it has not stopped you. Because you believe in freedom of speech.”
Not long after Wilders’ speech, two gunmen in body armor — one of whom was the target of a federal terror investigation — showed up outside the event in a Dallas suburb. One shot a security guard in the leg before police returned fire and killed both men.
Barnett said he invited Wilders to speak at the Palm Beach County GOP event after hearing him a few years ago in Boca Raton.
“I’ve heard him speak before and with everything in the world going on with regards to radical Islamic terrorism, I thought it would be good to hear his perspective,” Barnett said.
“We’re having a politician come to speak on the reality of the world situation with regard to terrorism,” Barnett said. “We’re not provoking anything. From what I understand there was a Muhammad drawing competition (in Texas). We’re not doing anything like that.”