Politics

The globetrotter confined: the hardening of Geert Wilders

Since the evening in 2004 when policemen arrived unannounced to escort him and his wife to safety, Geert Wilders has lived in safe houses under 24-hour guard to protect him from Islamist militants who threatened to kill him.

Film-maker Theo van Gogh had been shot, stabbed and nearly beheaded by a militant Islamist earlier that day, and Wilders, another prominent critic of Islam, was seen as a likely next target.

Nearly 13 years under protective seclusion have only strengthened his convictions. Wilders, 53, now wants to halt Muslim immigration, close all mosques and ban the Koran, which he compares to Adolf Hitler's tract Mein Kampf.

He is on Taliban and al Qaeda hitlists, and blames Islam for the long confinement that ended his life as a cosmopolitan globetrotter.