A Turkish hacker has defaced dozens of Dutch websites with pro-Islamic slogans and pictures of right-wing politician Geert Wilders edited to make him look like a monkey, a website that tracks hackers said.

Wilders, a former insurance worker turned politician and filmmaker, takes an anti-EU, anti-Islamist stand and leads the Freedom Party which is widely tipped to come first or second in next year's Dutch parliamentary elections.

The hacker, who goes by the name aLpTurkTegin, wrote on some of the sites Our war will continue against the ones who are against the real religion Islam. On some pages the hacker posted a logo calling him- or her-self Turkish Defacer.

The pictures of Wilders vary, but generally depict his nose and/or mouth replaced with those of a monkey.

According to the website Zone-H, which tracks hacking attacks, aLpTurkTegin defaced at least 147 sites in the last 7 days, most of them with anti-Wilders pages. The last recorded attacks were on Friday.

It's crazy but what can I do, Wilders told Reuters in a phone interview on Sunday. It's very nasty indeed.

Wilders said the recent attacks had some similarities to a hacking attack on his own website last year, though it was not clear if the perpetrators were the same. He said the hacker's latest series of attack was not doing his cause any favors.

It's not against me now, it's against hundreds of Dutch websites which have nothing to do with me, he said.

Wilders particularly opposes the influence of Islam on European culture and Turkish membership of the European Union. His views have led to a ban on his entry to Great Britain and calls for prosecution in the Netherlands.

He sleeps in many places and travels with bodyguards. Yet the latest Maurice de Hond poll, released on Sunday, showed his party would take 31 seats in parliament in next year's election, just one seat away from a tie for first.

(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz, editing by Tim Pearce)