NIS News Bulletin THE HAGUE, Saturday - The Netherlands is not refusing radical Pakistani Muslim leader Mohammed Anas Noorani Siddiqui entry to the country. He is due to speak in an Amsterdam mosque on Sunday.

The Lower House reacted with great surprise to a report in De Telegraaf. The newspaper reported Thursday that Anas Noorani Siddiqui would chair a conference in the Talabah mosque in Amsterdam. In March, he supported the death penalty for all blasphemers of the Prophet Mohammed.

Virtually all parties questioned how Siddiqui could obtain a visa for the Netherlands. But a motion by independent MP Geert Wilders to withdraw the visa and immediately deport the man from the country received insufficient support.

Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner added to the surprise by revealing that Siddiqui is chairman of the World Islamic Mission (WIM) mosque body. This is affiliated in the Netherlands to the Muslims and Government Consultative Body (CMO).

In addition, Donner confirmed Siddiqui has also already attended meetings in the Netherlands in recent years. According to Wilders, he usually does this around 11 September. "Apparently, he takes a Satanic pleasure in this."

The Pakistani is a member of the radical Islamic government party Jamiat Ulema Pakistan (JUP). Wilders pointed out that this grouping co-signed a fatwa issued by Osama bin Ladin in 1998, in which Muslims were summoned to kill Americans and their allies. Donner however said the JUP in Pakistan belongs to the "moderate centre" in Pakistan and that it was not Siddiqui but the secretary of the party who had signed the fatwa.

Donner managed to calm the majority in the House by saying the Public Prosecutor's Office will keep an eye on the Pakistani when he gives the conference in the mosque. If he makes statements that are punishable offences, he can be put on a list of undesirable aliens. The Netherlands would then be able to refuse him entry in future, according to Donner.