The Liberal Alliance Party is planning to block an invitation to the controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders to take part in an international conference on freedom of speech and 'anti-radicalisation' in Copenhagen in June.

The [right-wing] Danish People's Party and the Conservative Party, a junior coalition party, both want to invite Wilders.

"We don't want to make this conference into some sort of freak show, to which we simply call in those who can create the most trouble on the streets, simply to show how brave we are," says Liberal Alliance Chairman Anders Samuelsen.

Samuelsen, who heads the smallest party in the Danish parliament, has just sent his [own] invitation list to integration minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech, who is arranging the conference. The Liberal Alliance and the Danish People's Party are co-organisers of the conference, as it was part of the government's budget agreement, which both parties supported.

Wilders 'obvious' choice

The Danish People's Party maintains that Wilders is an obvious participant in the conference as his life has been threatened by Muslim fundamentalists. Wilders was recently denied entry into Britain, where he had planned to show his controversial [anti-Islam] film Fitna in the house of lords.

For a while, Fitna briefly opened and closed with one of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard's controversial Muhammed cartoons. [The cartoon was removed after a complaint by Westergaard.]

"This is just Anders Samuelsson's five minutes of fame that he needs every so often. But here, he doesn't have a veto," says Danish People's Party chairwoman Pia Kjærsgaard.

"But we'll figure it out. After what happened in London it wouldn't be right not to invite Geert Wilders, and we are not alone," says Kjærsgaard, who also wants to invite Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Dutch member of parliament, wrote the manuscript for the Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh's controversial film Submission. Van Gogh was killed in Amsterdam by a Muslim fundamentalist in 2004.

The Conservative Party agrees that Wilders should be invited.

"Wilders isn't my cup of tea, but after Wilders was recently denied entry into Britain, he is more relevant than before at a conference on freedom of speech," says Naser Khader, who has recently joined the Conservative Party after leaving the Liberal Alliance following a leadership struggle.

Khader says Wilders has not said anything much different than what Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been saying. "The only difference I see is that she is dark and beautiful and he is pale and has ugly hair," says Khader.

'Not constructive'

Samuelsen says that Wilders represents a debate on freedom of speech [similar to the one] about the publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.

"But we can't continue the discussions at that level for the next 10 years. We should be using the conference to move the debate to Mohammed Crisis 2.0. I can't see that Wilders can offer anything constructive in relation to the situation we currently have in Denmark," Samuelsen says.

"We don't need to debate whether we support freedom of speech. We do. And that's it. All of us. So let us instead discuss how we can live in a way that we get less radicalisation and have a more relaxed view of the freedom of speech."

Naser Khader disagrees.

"If we all agreed on freedom of speech, there would be no reason to hold the conference. The point is that we have a problem in that some people want to limit freedom of speech globally. If it is not a problem for freedom of speech that England has refused entry to a member of parliament of another EU country, then I don't understand anything," Khader says, adding that Wilders has "pompous rhetoric and is provocative" but has never encouraged violence.

Integration minister Birth Rønn Hornbech has declined to comment.