Waqas 48 Posted March 30, 2008 AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders launched a film on Thursday that accuses the Quran of inciting violence and warns that Muslim immigrants threaten the West, prompting the government to appeal for calm. The film “Fitna” was posted on his Party’s Web site, which crashed soon afterwards. But it could still be viewed on a file-sharing Web site in English and Dutch. Dutch broadcasters had refused to show the film and a U.S.-based web service which Wilders had planned to use deactivated the site at the weekend after receiving complaints. The Dutch government is anxious to avert the kind of Muslim backlash Denmark suffered in 2006 over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said on Thursday he rejected the film’s attempt to link Islam with violence. Wilders has been under heavy guard because of Islamist death threats since the 2004 murder of Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who made a film critical of Islam’s treatment of women. “Fitna”, a Koranic term sometimes translated as “strife”, intersperses shots of the September 11, 2001 attacks and other bombings with quotations from the Koran. “We believe it serves no purpose other than to cause offence,” Balkenende told a news conference. “But feeling offended should never be used as an excuse for aggression and threats.” He added he was heartened by the initial restraint of Dutch Muslims. “It is not a film — it is propaganda. All the elements have been seen before, there is nothing new in it,” he said, adding he hoped there would not be an angry reaction at home or abroad. Demonstrators have already taken to the streets from Afghanistan to Indonesia to burn Dutch and Danish flags, while the governments of Pakistan and Iran have sharply criticized the film. About a thousand people protested against Wilders in Amsterdam on Saturday. NATO had expressed concern the film could worsen security for foreign forces in Afghanistan, including 1,650 Dutch troops. Earlier this month, Dutch security officials raised the national risk level to “substantial” because of the Wilders film and perceptions of an increased al Qaeda threat. Van Gogh’s killing by an Islamist militant triggered a wave of unrest in the Netherlands, home to almost 1 million Muslims out of a total population of 16 million. For more Updates and News Visit http://www.boycottdenmark.info/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
