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Utrecht, Netherlands - A Dutch court on Thursday acquitted an Arab cultural group and its chairman of hate speech charges for publishing a cartoon questioning the reality of the Holocaust.

The Utrecht court ruled that the publication by the Dutch arm of the Arab European League was intended to provoke debate, and fell within the boundaries of freedom of speech laws.

“The court considers the cartoon insulting, if considered by itself,” the court said in a written ruling. However “the context in which it is placed removes the criminally insulting nature.”

It said that the group had intended to spur a public discussion about a perceived double standard: that European media are willing to publish cartoons mocking Islam’s prophet Muhammad — but mocking the Holocaust is a taboo.

The league published the cartoon on its own website. In accompanying texts, it stated that it accepts the reality of Nazi genocide against Jews during World War II.

Public prosecutors had demanded a C2,500 ($3,350) fine against the league and a C1,250 fine against its chairman Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda, who drew the cartoon.

The cartoon shows two apparently Jewish men poking a pile of skeletons and discussing whether they can count non-Jews to increase the Holocaust death toll.

The Netherlands’ Center for Documentation on Israel filed a formal complaint, noting that Jews had nothing to do with the creation or publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons that were published in Denmark, angering Muslims around the world.

Hate speech prosecutions are rare in the Netherlands, but the AEL case is one of several high-profile cases to come to court recently.

Lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has become one of the country’s most popular politicians on an anti-Islam platform, is facing criminal prosecution for alleged hate speech violations.

Mr. Wilders has called for the Qur’an to be banned and compared it to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” and has branded Islam a violent religion.

After a strong immigration wave in the 1990s, Muslims make up around 6 per cent of the 16.5 million Dutch population.

A popular backlash against immigration has dominated politics here since 2001, and it intensified in 2004 when filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim radical over perceived religious insults.

That further fuelled debate over immigrant crime and the need to preserve traditional Dutch values. The AEL says Mr. Wilders and Dutch media are creating a hostile environment for Muslims, worsening discrimination.

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