On 3 February 2009, Melanie Phillips, a newspaper columnist, claimed that Ahmed had threatened to mobilise 10,000 Muslims to prevent anti-Islamist Dutch MP Geert Wilders from entering the House of Lords to speak at a screening of the film "Fitna". Wilders had been invited by a peer to debate issues of social inclusion. This claim was later denied by Ahmed, but the House of Lords authorities had determined to provide adequate security, if necessary. In the event, the film "Fitna" was broadcast as planned, but Wilders was denied entry to the UK, thus leading many commentators to deplore the action by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith as appeasement.