Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netherlands. Show all posts
Friday, December 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Republished Danish cartoon of prophet Muhammad ignites tensions
Muslims have protested Danish and Dutch actions they see as insulting to Islam.
By Julien Spencer
More than two years after the publication of cartoons in European newspapers depicting the prophet Muhammad unleashed a heated debate and a fury of rage among Muslims that left more than 50 people dead, the controversy has been reignited with the republication of one of the cartoons in Danish and Dutch newspapers, stirring talk of everything from boycotts to severing of diplomatic ties.
The BBC reports Danish newspapers have reprinted one of several caricatures, originally published in 2005, that sparked violent protests across the Muslim world the following year. The cartoon was arguably the most controversial, as it depicted the prophet with a bomb in his turban. Muslims consider depictions of the prophet Muhammad offensive.
They say they wanted to show their commitment to freedom of speech after an alleged plot to kill one of the cartoonists behind the drawings....
The cartoons were originally published by Jyllands-Posten in September 2005.
Danish embassies were attacked around the world and dozens died in riots that followed.
On Feb. 12, the Guardian reported, three men were arrested in Denmark for allegedly plotting to kill Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew the original caricature satirizing Muhammad.
Police officials said they made the arrests to "prevent a terror-related murder" after a long period of surveillance, but did not say which cartoonist had been targeted.
The case shows that, unfortunately, there are in Denmark groups of extremists that do not accept and respect the basic principles on which the Danish democracy has been built," said the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Following the arrests, the left-leaning Danish broadsheet Politiken reprinted the cartoons, calling the murder plot an attack on Denmark's democracy. In an editorial, the newspaper wrote that:
Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten [the first newspaper to publish the cartoons in 2005] at the time used freedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, the paper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatened with terror.
The republication of the cartoons has drawn condemnation among Muslims. Arab News reported from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that the secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had expressed regret about the new move.
Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged Muslims to use legal and peaceful means to protest the outrage. He said that he wished the Danish media would have chosen another subject as a test case to reassert the freedom of speech instead of supporting a blatant act of incitement to hatred in a most unfortunate and senseless manner, noting that the newspapers were aware that this act would offend not only Danish Muslims but the world's other 1.3 billion Muslims who have nothing to do with the alleged three-man terror plot.
In Iran, which has also attempted to prevent the screening of a controversial film – it would air views about the Koran held by a Dutch right-wing populist lawmaker – the cartoons sparked immediate backlash from parliamentarians, reported the Tehran Times:
In a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some 215 MPs in Iran's 290-seat assembly said Iran should review trade and political links with Denmark and the Netherlands to respond to "an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current" in the two countries.
We, representatives of the honorable Iranian nation, condemn this devil measure. We ask the president ... to seriously review Iran's political and trade ties with these countries," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, state radio said.
The Danish government, however, has refused to condemn the republication of the cartoons and, in an act praised by Israel's Ynet News, the government canceled an official delegation that was due to travel to Iran:
A group of Danish lawmakers has cancelled a trip to Iran because Tehran demanded they condemn the reprinting of Prophet Muhammad cartoons in newspapers, a spokeswoman said Saturday.
Ten members of the parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, including Denmark's former foreign minister Mogens Lykketoft, were scheduled to visit Iran between Feb. 18 and Feb. 21.
Mette Vestergaard, a committee official, confirmed the cancellation. "The Iranian ambassador asked the Foreign Policy Committee to condemn the drawings. They can't and they won't," she said without giving more details."
The American Muslim has mentioned some of the other immediate consequences of the republication of the cartoon:
Once again we are seeing protests in Pakistan, young people rioting in Denmark's immigrant areas which has now gone on for seven nights, calls for a total boycott of Denmark by Kuwaiti MP's and by an Arab consumer group, and diplomatic difficulties.
The reaction bears strong resemblance to the outcry that followed the original publication of the cartoons in 2005, as reported The Christian Science Monitor at the time:
The bomb threat comes in the aftermath of the September 2005 publication of the 12 cartoons, some of which seemed to equate Muhammad with terrorism. Since publication, Jyllands-Posten and Denmark have become the focus of the ire of the Muslim world. Demonstrators in Gaza have burned Danish flags, Saudi Arabia and Libya have withdrawn their ambassadors to Denmark, and Danish goods are being boycotted across the Middle East.
This time, however, a new virtual debate has also been spawned by the controversy. In Denmark, the battle of Facebook sites (registration required) defending the pros and cons of the cartoons has already begun:
"Now young Danish student Anders Boetter says he has decided to start a Facebook site called Sorry Muhammad to apologise to Muslims on behalf of ordinary Danes and also give them a voice in the controversy over the row.
Anders says that in the last two years since the first printing of the cartoons, the media has built up a debate which is very black-and-white.
"Either you were for the Muhammad drawings or you were against it, but I believe there are many Danes who do not feel that way - they're somewhere in between and I am one of them," he explains."
By Julien Spencer
More than two years after the publication of cartoons in European newspapers depicting the prophet Muhammad unleashed a heated debate and a fury of rage among Muslims that left more than 50 people dead, the controversy has been reignited with the republication of one of the cartoons in Danish and Dutch newspapers, stirring talk of everything from boycotts to severing of diplomatic ties.
The BBC reports Danish newspapers have reprinted one of several caricatures, originally published in 2005, that sparked violent protests across the Muslim world the following year. The cartoon was arguably the most controversial, as it depicted the prophet with a bomb in his turban. Muslims consider depictions of the prophet Muhammad offensive.
They say they wanted to show their commitment to freedom of speech after an alleged plot to kill one of the cartoonists behind the drawings....
The cartoons were originally published by Jyllands-Posten in September 2005.
Danish embassies were attacked around the world and dozens died in riots that followed.
On Feb. 12, the Guardian reported, three men were arrested in Denmark for allegedly plotting to kill Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew the original caricature satirizing Muhammad.
Police officials said they made the arrests to "prevent a terror-related murder" after a long period of surveillance, but did not say which cartoonist had been targeted.
The case shows that, unfortunately, there are in Denmark groups of extremists that do not accept and respect the basic principles on which the Danish democracy has been built," said the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Following the arrests, the left-leaning Danish broadsheet Politiken reprinted the cartoons, calling the murder plot an attack on Denmark's democracy. In an editorial, the newspaper wrote that:
Regardless of whether Jyllands-Posten [the first newspaper to publish the cartoons in 2005] at the time used freedom of speech unwisely and with damaging consequences, the paper deserves unconditional solidarity when it is threatened with terror.
The republication of the cartoons has drawn condemnation among Muslims. Arab News reported from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that the secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had expressed regret about the new move.
Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged Muslims to use legal and peaceful means to protest the outrage. He said that he wished the Danish media would have chosen another subject as a test case to reassert the freedom of speech instead of supporting a blatant act of incitement to hatred in a most unfortunate and senseless manner, noting that the newspapers were aware that this act would offend not only Danish Muslims but the world's other 1.3 billion Muslims who have nothing to do with the alleged three-man terror plot.
In Iran, which has also attempted to prevent the screening of a controversial film – it would air views about the Koran held by a Dutch right-wing populist lawmaker – the cartoons sparked immediate backlash from parliamentarians, reported the Tehran Times:
In a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some 215 MPs in Iran's 290-seat assembly said Iran should review trade and political links with Denmark and the Netherlands to respond to "an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current" in the two countries.
We, representatives of the honorable Iranian nation, condemn this devil measure. We ask the president ... to seriously review Iran's political and trade ties with these countries," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, state radio said.
The Danish government, however, has refused to condemn the republication of the cartoons and, in an act praised by Israel's Ynet News, the government canceled an official delegation that was due to travel to Iran:
A group of Danish lawmakers has cancelled a trip to Iran because Tehran demanded they condemn the reprinting of Prophet Muhammad cartoons in newspapers, a spokeswoman said Saturday.
Ten members of the parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, including Denmark's former foreign minister Mogens Lykketoft, were scheduled to visit Iran between Feb. 18 and Feb. 21.
Mette Vestergaard, a committee official, confirmed the cancellation. "The Iranian ambassador asked the Foreign Policy Committee to condemn the drawings. They can't and they won't," she said without giving more details."
The American Muslim has mentioned some of the other immediate consequences of the republication of the cartoon:
Once again we are seeing protests in Pakistan, young people rioting in Denmark's immigrant areas which has now gone on for seven nights, calls for a total boycott of Denmark by Kuwaiti MP's and by an Arab consumer group, and diplomatic difficulties.
The reaction bears strong resemblance to the outcry that followed the original publication of the cartoons in 2005, as reported The Christian Science Monitor at the time:
The bomb threat comes in the aftermath of the September 2005 publication of the 12 cartoons, some of which seemed to equate Muhammad with terrorism. Since publication, Jyllands-Posten and Denmark have become the focus of the ire of the Muslim world. Demonstrators in Gaza have burned Danish flags, Saudi Arabia and Libya have withdrawn their ambassadors to Denmark, and Danish goods are being boycotted across the Middle East.
This time, however, a new virtual debate has also been spawned by the controversy. In Denmark, the battle of Facebook sites (registration required) defending the pros and cons of the cartoons has already begun:
"Now young Danish student Anders Boetter says he has decided to start a Facebook site called Sorry Muhammad to apologise to Muslims on behalf of ordinary Danes and also give them a voice in the controversy over the row.
Anders says that in the last two years since the first printing of the cartoons, the media has built up a debate which is very black-and-white.
"Either you were for the Muhammad drawings or you were against it, but I believe there are many Danes who do not feel that way - they're somewhere in between and I am one of them," he explains."
[Editor: Look, how stupid these Danish & Dutch newspapers are, mindless bigots who never learn from the past. They are ruining their countries' economy and everything else....]
Monday, February 11, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
The Netherlands frets about the likely impact of a new anti-Islam film
THE Netherlands is going through a “considerable crisis”, says the prime minister. The Iranians are musing publicly about cutting diplomatic ties. The grand mufti of Syria has issued grave warnings of war and bloodshed. Dutch citizens living in Muslim countries have been asked to report any worrying incidents.
The one thing missing is the cause of the fuss: an anti-Islamic film neither made nor shown by a Dutch member of parliament, Geert Wilders. In November Mr Wilders revealed his plan to air on television an exposé of the wickedness of the Koran, which he calls an Islamic “Mein Kampf”. The film is said to include shots of him desecrating the Koran. Dutch state television appears reluctant to show it, so Mr Wilders now talks of a private broadcaster, or using the internet. But the mere talk of his film has been enough to ignite a renewed debate about Islam in Europe and the limits on free speech.
The Dutch have reason to worry. Two years ago the publication of Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper triggered anti-Danish riots around the Muslim world. Two years before that a film about Islam, “Submission”, was shown on Dutch television; soon afterwards its director, Theo van Gogh, was butchered in an Amsterdam street by a radical Dutch Islamist, who also threatened the screenplay writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (now living in America). Mr Wilders's film could, some fear, have similarly violent consequences.
Mr Wilders's anti-immigrant party has nine seats in parliament, too few to affect the government's fairly tolerant policy towards the country's Muslim minority. But he has jabbed his finger into several sore spots. He has publicly questioned the loyalty of two cabinet members with dual nationality (ie, Turkish and Moroccan as well as Dutch). He called a third minister “barking mad” because of her liberal integration policies. And he has demanded a ban on immigration from Muslim countries.
Mr Wilders might seem just a provocateur. But his power lies in the rhetoric that he uses to contrast such liberal notions as gay rights and female emancipation with the image of an intolerant and anti-modern Islam, says Paul Schnabel, head of a Dutch government social-science institute. Polls show that the Dutch rate freedom of speech as one of their most important values—and many see Mr Wilders as its champion. He is a “modern conservative”, argues Mr Schnabel, able convincingly to demand of immigrants that they should show full loyalty to Dutch values.
As important as Mr Wilders's political talent is the absence of powerful countervailing voices speaking up for inclusiveness, pluralism and a more respectful public debate. Many Muslim immigrants suffer from relative poverty, from high levels of crime and from social segregation. The government focuses on policies to improve the education of second-generation Muslims, get more of them to work and find ways to reduce crime. The justice minister, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, insists that such measures offer the best hope of improving the sour relationship between Muslims and native Dutch folk. But the technospeak often used to describe them hardly matches the fiery one-liners launched from the right. --(TheEconomist)
The one thing missing is the cause of the fuss: an anti-Islamic film neither made nor shown by a Dutch member of parliament, Geert Wilders. In November Mr Wilders revealed his plan to air on television an exposé of the wickedness of the Koran, which he calls an Islamic “Mein Kampf”. The film is said to include shots of him desecrating the Koran. Dutch state television appears reluctant to show it, so Mr Wilders now talks of a private broadcaster, or using the internet. But the mere talk of his film has been enough to ignite a renewed debate about Islam in Europe and the limits on free speech.
The Dutch have reason to worry. Two years ago the publication of Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper triggered anti-Danish riots around the Muslim world. Two years before that a film about Islam, “Submission”, was shown on Dutch television; soon afterwards its director, Theo van Gogh, was butchered in an Amsterdam street by a radical Dutch Islamist, who also threatened the screenplay writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (now living in America). Mr Wilders's film could, some fear, have similarly violent consequences.
Mr Wilders's anti-immigrant party has nine seats in parliament, too few to affect the government's fairly tolerant policy towards the country's Muslim minority. But he has jabbed his finger into several sore spots. He has publicly questioned the loyalty of two cabinet members with dual nationality (ie, Turkish and Moroccan as well as Dutch). He called a third minister “barking mad” because of her liberal integration policies. And he has demanded a ban on immigration from Muslim countries.
Mr Wilders might seem just a provocateur. But his power lies in the rhetoric that he uses to contrast such liberal notions as gay rights and female emancipation with the image of an intolerant and anti-modern Islam, says Paul Schnabel, head of a Dutch government social-science institute. Polls show that the Dutch rate freedom of speech as one of their most important values—and many see Mr Wilders as its champion. He is a “modern conservative”, argues Mr Schnabel, able convincingly to demand of immigrants that they should show full loyalty to Dutch values.
As important as Mr Wilders's political talent is the absence of powerful countervailing voices speaking up for inclusiveness, pluralism and a more respectful public debate. Many Muslim immigrants suffer from relative poverty, from high levels of crime and from social segregation. The government focuses on policies to improve the education of second-generation Muslims, get more of them to work and find ways to reduce crime. The justice minister, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, insists that such measures offer the best hope of improving the sour relationship between Muslims and native Dutch folk. But the technospeak often used to describe them hardly matches the fiery one-liners launched from the right. --(TheEconomist)
Monday, January 28, 2008
EU ministers express concern about Dutch anti-Islam film
BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia (AFP) — EU justice ministers have expressed concern about a far-right Dutch lawmaker's plan to make a potentially inflammatory film about the Koran, ministers and officials said Saturday.
They said that Dutch justice officials had raised the issue at informal talks in Slovenia, and had called for EU support, amid concern that the short film could reignite tensions with Muslims after the Danish cartoons affair.
"It would, of course, have important repercussions for other countries of the European Union as well," Luxembourg Justice Minister Luc Frieden told AFP, on the sidelines of the talks.
"It is our moral duty to call upon everybody, to make people aware, so that they do not abuse their fundamental rights" of freedom of expression, he said.
"We must also protect those who may be hurt or harmed by irresponsible statements."
Far-right deputy Geert Wilders has been in the spotlight since he announced in the Netherlands in November that he plans to make a short film to show that Islam's holy book is "a fascist book" that "incites people to murder".
Dutch observers fear that Wilders will burn or tear up the Koran in it.
"The Dutch minister expressed a certain preoccupation about that and asked for the support of his colleagues," an EU official told AFP.
It remains unclear if and when the movie will be shown. Wilders told Saturday's edition of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that it would be several weeks yet, after earlier giving a date of the end of January.
"The EU has to be attentive," the EU official said. "We are trying to avoid the situation we had with the cartoons."
A series of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in Denmark's biggest daily newspaper two years ago led to deadly riots in several Muslim countries.
Devout Muslims consider all depictions of Mohammed in pictorial form to be blasphemous.
The EU official said that the bloc's Counter Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove noted during the discussions that "we have to think about how to deal with that."
German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said the EU ministers "agreed we would remain in contact" with their Dutch counterpart Ernst Hirsch Ballin over the issue.
De Telegraaf said it had viewed some rushes from the film.
"The opening shot shows to the left the cover of the Koran, and to the right the words 'Warning: this book contains shocking pictures'," it said.
Then images such as "a decapitation in Iraq, a stoning in Iran and an execution in Saudi Arabia, where sharia (Islamic law) is applied" are shown, it said.
"Those who find that shocking should not get angry with me, but with those people who did these things," Wilders told the paper.
"The film does not only talk about the Koran, it plays out within its framework," he said. "The edges of the book will be permanently visible (in the film) and within this frame, we show images of what is described in the words of the Koran."
In another twist to the story Friday, Wilders' party spokesman said the lawmaker would take legal action against a clip circulating on the Internet where a poster with his picture is riddled with bullets.
"Mr Wilders will file a legal complaint against the film" which he finds "disgusting", a spokesman for his Freedom Party told AFP.
Wilders has been under heavy police protection since the 2004 murder of Dutch director and columnist Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh was killed by a radical Muslim after he directed a film criticising the position of women in Islam.
Numerous Islamic associations have already urged Muslims in the country to stay calm and not allow themselves to be provoked.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said the Netherlands is ready to act quickly if the film causes unrest, and stressed that "provocations" have no place in the Dutch tradition of tolerance.
They said that Dutch justice officials had raised the issue at informal talks in Slovenia, and had called for EU support, amid concern that the short film could reignite tensions with Muslims after the Danish cartoons affair.
"It would, of course, have important repercussions for other countries of the European Union as well," Luxembourg Justice Minister Luc Frieden told AFP, on the sidelines of the talks.
"It is our moral duty to call upon everybody, to make people aware, so that they do not abuse their fundamental rights" of freedom of expression, he said.
"We must also protect those who may be hurt or harmed by irresponsible statements."
Far-right deputy Geert Wilders has been in the spotlight since he announced in the Netherlands in November that he plans to make a short film to show that Islam's holy book is "a fascist book" that "incites people to murder".
Dutch observers fear that Wilders will burn or tear up the Koran in it.
"The Dutch minister expressed a certain preoccupation about that and asked for the support of his colleagues," an EU official told AFP.
It remains unclear if and when the movie will be shown. Wilders told Saturday's edition of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that it would be several weeks yet, after earlier giving a date of the end of January.
"The EU has to be attentive," the EU official said. "We are trying to avoid the situation we had with the cartoons."
A series of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in Denmark's biggest daily newspaper two years ago led to deadly riots in several Muslim countries.
Devout Muslims consider all depictions of Mohammed in pictorial form to be blasphemous.
The EU official said that the bloc's Counter Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove noted during the discussions that "we have to think about how to deal with that."
German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said the EU ministers "agreed we would remain in contact" with their Dutch counterpart Ernst Hirsch Ballin over the issue.
De Telegraaf said it had viewed some rushes from the film.
"The opening shot shows to the left the cover of the Koran, and to the right the words 'Warning: this book contains shocking pictures'," it said.
Then images such as "a decapitation in Iraq, a stoning in Iran and an execution in Saudi Arabia, where sharia (Islamic law) is applied" are shown, it said.
"Those who find that shocking should not get angry with me, but with those people who did these things," Wilders told the paper.
"The film does not only talk about the Koran, it plays out within its framework," he said. "The edges of the book will be permanently visible (in the film) and within this frame, we show images of what is described in the words of the Koran."
In another twist to the story Friday, Wilders' party spokesman said the lawmaker would take legal action against a clip circulating on the Internet where a poster with his picture is riddled with bullets.
"Mr Wilders will file a legal complaint against the film" which he finds "disgusting", a spokesman for his Freedom Party told AFP.
Wilders has been under heavy police protection since the 2004 murder of Dutch director and columnist Theo van Gogh. Van Gogh was killed by a radical Muslim after he directed a film criticising the position of women in Islam.
Numerous Islamic associations have already urged Muslims in the country to stay calm and not allow themselves to be provoked.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said the Netherlands is ready to act quickly if the film causes unrest, and stressed that "provocations" have no place in the Dutch tradition of tolerance.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Netherlands braced for Muslim anger as politician releases 'anti-Islam' film
By Claire Soares in The Hague
Friday, 25 January 2008
For a film that lasts just 10 minutes and for which no one has even seen a trailer, it is creating one hell of an uproar. The cinematic debut from the anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders has forced the Netherlands to wrestle with the limits of its age-old tradition of free speech and stirred up anxieties about a multicultural society.
The film, billed by Mr Wilders as an illustration of how the Koran inspires people "to do the worst things", is the latest provocation from the maverick MP who has compared Islam's sacred text to Hitler's Mein Kampf, tried to ban the burqa and the building of mosques and called for all Muslims in the Netherlands either to give up their religion or go back to their own countries.
In a sign of how preoccupied the government is with the impending fallout, the Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, made an extraordinary statement before the Wilders film was even finished, let alone screened.
"It has become apparent that concerns exist, both here and abroad, that the film could be offensive, potentially inviting heated reactions that could affect public order, public safety and security and the economy," he said at a weekly briefing. "The government is preparing for the possible repercussions that the broadcast of the film could have, internationally as well as domestically." But there is no suggestion of a ban.
Mr Wilders had promised to screen his film today, saying he would post it on the internet if no willing Dutch broadcaster could be found. But he has since been quoted as saying that the film will not debut for a couple of weeks. When contacted yesterday, his spokesman refused to confirm or deny any release date.
Meanwhile, imams are being urged to preach calm at Friday prayers, while mayors across the country have been put on alert, as have Dutch embassies around the world.
Zainab al-Touraihi, a member of the Contact Group Between Muslims and the Government, said: "It's ridiculous that a film that's not even come out yet is dominating and getting so much attention. But as time approaches, people are getting scared.
"I know Wilders is a man who says crazy things, but now he's going to visualise them. Words on paper can touch you, but a movie packs more of a punch."
The prevailing sentiment on the streets of The Hague is that Mr Wilders has the right to say what he likes, swiftly followed by a desire that he reflect on the consequences of those words.
As the Prime Minister diplomatically put it: "This country enjoys a long tradition of freedom of expression, religion and belief. This country also has a tradition of respect, tolerance and responsibility. The government will honour these traditions and calls upon everyone to do the same."
If, as has been rumoured in the Dutch press, Mr Wilders rips or burns the Koran on camera, the images would be available across the world within minutes. Fears of a backlash are strong, especially given the anger that boiled over in 2005 after a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the prophet Mohamed.
Already, an Iranian parliamentarian has warned that he might call on the government to review its relations with the Netherlands, and on a visit to Europe this month, the Grand Mufti of Syria declared that any desecration of the Koran by Mr Wilders "will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed".
But the film furore is also hitting the Dutch closer to home, reviving painful memories of the turmoil that followed the murder of the film director Theo van Gogh in 2004. A distant relative of his namesake Vincent, Van Gogh had made a film, Submission, which accused Islam of condoning violence against women and projected quotes from the Koran on to naked female bodies. He was gunned down by an Islamist militant in broad daylight on a busy Amsterdam street, before having his throat slit.
Today, on Linnaeusstraat, away from Amsterdam's picture-postcard canals, you have to look hard to find any sign of what happened on that November morning. On the rust-coloured asphalt of the cycling lanes are two teaspoon-sized indentations that a local says are the marks left by two of the bullets fired.
But the scars on the Dutch national psyche are much more visible. "I never expected anything like that would happen here in Holland. It was very strange, a total shock," said Ed Mulder, who owns an opticians opposite the spot where the outspoken film director died. "But if it's happened once, it could happen again."
Van Gogh's murder ignited a wave of religious violence, with mosques and churches being firebombed. And it also provoked much soul-searching in a country that had prided itself on its tolerance. The fact that the murderer had been born and brought up in Holland led many to question how well the country's one million Muslims were integrated into the nation's population of 16 million.
Mr Wilders was already known for his anti-Islamic diatribes at that time and was swiftly given round-the-clock protection, which he still has to this day. This week, it emerged that the government's top counter-terrorism official had reportedly warned Mr Wilders that he might have to leave the country if he released the film.
But in an open letter to the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant on Wednesday, the politician refused to accept any responsibility for what he described as the "hysterical panic" surrounding his unaired movie. "[That] says everything about the nature of Islam. Nothing about me," he wrote. "Islam is an intolerant ideology... within which there is no room for matters like self-reflection and self-criticism."
Mr Wilders' Party for Freedom won nine of the 150 seats in the Dutch parliament at the last election, but it regularly polls above that level. Some attribute his popularity to a talent for headline-grabbing soundbites, such as warnings of a "tsunami of Islamisation"; some suggest that his larger-than-life persona stands out in an otherwise uncharismatic political scene.
For others, he is carrying on the torch of Pim Fortuyn, the pioneer of anti-Islamic politics in Holland before he was murdered in 2002. Like Fortuyn, Mr Wilders taps into the anti-establishment feeling and voices the opinions of those who blame Muslims for all that is bad in their lives.
"The big political parties are almost afraid to address it, and that strengthens some people's sense of abandonment and allows Mr Wilders a way in," explained Tofik Dibi, a Green Party MP.
He added: "I feel so disappointed that everything is getting overshadowed by Wilders and we do not get round to discussing the important underlying issues. We should be properly discussing the place of religion, of Islam, in a Western society, but he is holding the country in a headlock."
For a film that lasts just 10 minutes and for which no one has even seen a trailer, it is creating one hell of an uproar. The cinematic debut from the anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders has forced the Netherlands to wrestle with the limits of its age-old tradition of free speech and stirred up anxieties about a multicultural society.
The film, billed by Mr Wilders as an illustration of how the Koran inspires people "to do the worst things", is the latest provocation from the maverick MP who has compared Islam's sacred text to Hitler's Mein Kampf, tried to ban the burqa and the building of mosques and called for all Muslims in the Netherlands either to give up their religion or go back to their own countries.
In a sign of how preoccupied the government is with the impending fallout, the Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, made an extraordinary statement before the Wilders film was even finished, let alone screened.
"It has become apparent that concerns exist, both here and abroad, that the film could be offensive, potentially inviting heated reactions that could affect public order, public safety and security and the economy," he said at a weekly briefing. "The government is preparing for the possible repercussions that the broadcast of the film could have, internationally as well as domestically." But there is no suggestion of a ban.
Mr Wilders had promised to screen his film today, saying he would post it on the internet if no willing Dutch broadcaster could be found. But he has since been quoted as saying that the film will not debut for a couple of weeks. When contacted yesterday, his spokesman refused to confirm or deny any release date.
Meanwhile, imams are being urged to preach calm at Friday prayers, while mayors across the country have been put on alert, as have Dutch embassies around the world.
Zainab al-Touraihi, a member of the Contact Group Between Muslims and the Government, said: "It's ridiculous that a film that's not even come out yet is dominating and getting so much attention. But as time approaches, people are getting scared.
"I know Wilders is a man who says crazy things, but now he's going to visualise them. Words on paper can touch you, but a movie packs more of a punch."
The prevailing sentiment on the streets of The Hague is that Mr Wilders has the right to say what he likes, swiftly followed by a desire that he reflect on the consequences of those words.
As the Prime Minister diplomatically put it: "This country enjoys a long tradition of freedom of expression, religion and belief. This country also has a tradition of respect, tolerance and responsibility. The government will honour these traditions and calls upon everyone to do the same."
If, as has been rumoured in the Dutch press, Mr Wilders rips or burns the Koran on camera, the images would be available across the world within minutes. Fears of a backlash are strong, especially given the anger that boiled over in 2005 after a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the prophet Mohamed.
Already, an Iranian parliamentarian has warned that he might call on the government to review its relations with the Netherlands, and on a visit to Europe this month, the Grand Mufti of Syria declared that any desecration of the Koran by Mr Wilders "will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed".
But the film furore is also hitting the Dutch closer to home, reviving painful memories of the turmoil that followed the murder of the film director Theo van Gogh in 2004. A distant relative of his namesake Vincent, Van Gogh had made a film, Submission, which accused Islam of condoning violence against women and projected quotes from the Koran on to naked female bodies. He was gunned down by an Islamist militant in broad daylight on a busy Amsterdam street, before having his throat slit.
Today, on Linnaeusstraat, away from Amsterdam's picture-postcard canals, you have to look hard to find any sign of what happened on that November morning. On the rust-coloured asphalt of the cycling lanes are two teaspoon-sized indentations that a local says are the marks left by two of the bullets fired.
But the scars on the Dutch national psyche are much more visible. "I never expected anything like that would happen here in Holland. It was very strange, a total shock," said Ed Mulder, who owns an opticians opposite the spot where the outspoken film director died. "But if it's happened once, it could happen again."
Van Gogh's murder ignited a wave of religious violence, with mosques and churches being firebombed. And it also provoked much soul-searching in a country that had prided itself on its tolerance. The fact that the murderer had been born and brought up in Holland led many to question how well the country's one million Muslims were integrated into the nation's population of 16 million.
Mr Wilders was already known for his anti-Islamic diatribes at that time and was swiftly given round-the-clock protection, which he still has to this day. This week, it emerged that the government's top counter-terrorism official had reportedly warned Mr Wilders that he might have to leave the country if he released the film.
But in an open letter to the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant on Wednesday, the politician refused to accept any responsibility for what he described as the "hysterical panic" surrounding his unaired movie. "[That] says everything about the nature of Islam. Nothing about me," he wrote. "Islam is an intolerant ideology... within which there is no room for matters like self-reflection and self-criticism."
Mr Wilders' Party for Freedom won nine of the 150 seats in the Dutch parliament at the last election, but it regularly polls above that level. Some attribute his popularity to a talent for headline-grabbing soundbites, such as warnings of a "tsunami of Islamisation"; some suggest that his larger-than-life persona stands out in an otherwise uncharismatic political scene.
For others, he is carrying on the torch of Pim Fortuyn, the pioneer of anti-Islamic politics in Holland before he was murdered in 2002. Like Fortuyn, Mr Wilders taps into the anti-establishment feeling and voices the opinions of those who blame Muslims for all that is bad in their lives.
"The big political parties are almost afraid to address it, and that strengthens some people's sense of abandonment and allows Mr Wilders a way in," explained Tofik Dibi, a Green Party MP.
He added: "I feel so disappointed that everything is getting overshadowed by Wilders and we do not get round to discussing the important underlying issues. We should be properly discussing the place of religion, of Islam, in a Western society, but he is holding the country in a headlock."
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Analysis: Anti-Islam film scares The Hague
BERLIN, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The Dutch government is bracing for widespread violence that could be sparked by an anti-Islam film that its producer wants to broadcast sometime this week.
The film, financed by right-wing politician Geert Wilders, will reveal the Koran as a source of "inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror," Wilders said.
The anticipated screening has already sparked international protests. Although no one has seen the film yet, there are rumors Wilders will tear up or burn the Koran in it. If that was true, Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria, said earlier this month at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, "this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed. ... It is the responsibility of the Dutch people to stop him."
On Monday, an Iranian lawmaker warned The Hague not to allow the screening of the film.
"If the Netherlands will allow the broadcast of this movie, the Iranian Parliament will request to reconsider our relationship with (the Dutch government)," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian security and foreign policy commission, according to Iran's federal news agency IRNA. "In Iran, insulting Islam is a very sensitive matter and if the movie is broadcast it will arouse a wave of popular hate that will be directed towards any government that insults Islam."
The Dutch government seems to think in the same terms. It fears a crisis similar to the one sparked by the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in Danish -- and later European -- newspapers two years ago, when Danish products were boycotted, Danish embassies set on fire and dozens of people died in violent protests all over the world.
To be prepared for all eventualities, the Dutch government over the past days summoned its key ministers and officials linked to security issues. The Hague has compiled a secret document (which the Dutch media said it has obtained) detailing emergency measures in case of riots or attacks, including short-term evacuations of Dutch embassies and citizens from the Middle East. Apparently, imams in several large Dutch cities have already had to calm Muslims angry over the news of the film.
"We are ready to react quickly, it is our role to be prepared for calamities," Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende told journalists at his weekly news briefing.
While a state-funded TV station has already recalled its promise to air the movie, Wilders, the most prominent member of the far-right Freedom Party, or VVD, has vowed to broadcast his film -- on a smaller TV station or on the Internet via YouTube -- whatever the pressure may be.
The Netherlands has had a history of violence connected to anti-Islam statements, and thus, officials there are particularly vigilant.
In November 2004 in Amsterdam, a Dutch teenager from Moroccan descent stabbed to death and nearly decapitated the filmmaker Theo Van Gogh after the airing of his controversial film "Submission," which criticized the suppression of women in Islamic culture.
Van Gogh had made the film together with prominent Somalia-born Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, then a Dutch lawmaker, who lives in self-imposed exile in Washington. Yet even Hirsi Ali has criticized Wilder's film as provocative and warned the Dutch government not to leave the field of debating integration of immigrants to extremists.
Wilders, however, has managed to grab all the headlines. The 42-year-old, infamous for his big platinum blond hair, sees himself as continuing the struggle of the late right-wing populist politician Pim Fortuyn, who was shot in 2002 by an animal-rights activist.
Wilders in the past years raised eyebrows with very controversial statements concerning Islam, saying the Koran was inciting hatred and fascism, and warning of an Islamization that was washing over the Netherlands like "a tsunami."
Dutch embassies all over the world have been told to highlight that the Dutch government is not backing the message of the film or any of Wilders' statements. While Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende fears that the film is able to "threaten the public order, the security and our economy," he said he cannot and does not want to censor the movie, citing the country's tradition of free speech.
At the same time, there is Holland's "tradition of respect, tolerance and responsibility. And absurd insults of certain groups are not part of that," Balkenende said in reference to Wilders' film.
The film, financed by right-wing politician Geert Wilders, will reveal the Koran as a source of "inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror," Wilders said.
The anticipated screening has already sparked international protests. Although no one has seen the film yet, there are rumors Wilders will tear up or burn the Koran in it. If that was true, Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria, said earlier this month at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, "this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed. ... It is the responsibility of the Dutch people to stop him."
On Monday, an Iranian lawmaker warned The Hague not to allow the screening of the film.
"If the Netherlands will allow the broadcast of this movie, the Iranian Parliament will request to reconsider our relationship with (the Dutch government)," said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian security and foreign policy commission, according to Iran's federal news agency IRNA. "In Iran, insulting Islam is a very sensitive matter and if the movie is broadcast it will arouse a wave of popular hate that will be directed towards any government that insults Islam."
The Dutch government seems to think in the same terms. It fears a crisis similar to the one sparked by the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in Danish -- and later European -- newspapers two years ago, when Danish products were boycotted, Danish embassies set on fire and dozens of people died in violent protests all over the world.
To be prepared for all eventualities, the Dutch government over the past days summoned its key ministers and officials linked to security issues. The Hague has compiled a secret document (which the Dutch media said it has obtained) detailing emergency measures in case of riots or attacks, including short-term evacuations of Dutch embassies and citizens from the Middle East. Apparently, imams in several large Dutch cities have already had to calm Muslims angry over the news of the film.
"We are ready to react quickly, it is our role to be prepared for calamities," Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende told journalists at his weekly news briefing.
While a state-funded TV station has already recalled its promise to air the movie, Wilders, the most prominent member of the far-right Freedom Party, or VVD, has vowed to broadcast his film -- on a smaller TV station or on the Internet via YouTube -- whatever the pressure may be.
The Netherlands has had a history of violence connected to anti-Islam statements, and thus, officials there are particularly vigilant.
In November 2004 in Amsterdam, a Dutch teenager from Moroccan descent stabbed to death and nearly decapitated the filmmaker Theo Van Gogh after the airing of his controversial film "Submission," which criticized the suppression of women in Islamic culture.
Van Gogh had made the film together with prominent Somalia-born Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, then a Dutch lawmaker, who lives in self-imposed exile in Washington. Yet even Hirsi Ali has criticized Wilder's film as provocative and warned the Dutch government not to leave the field of debating integration of immigrants to extremists.
Wilders, however, has managed to grab all the headlines. The 42-year-old, infamous for his big platinum blond hair, sees himself as continuing the struggle of the late right-wing populist politician Pim Fortuyn, who was shot in 2002 by an animal-rights activist.
Wilders in the past years raised eyebrows with very controversial statements concerning Islam, saying the Koran was inciting hatred and fascism, and warning of an Islamization that was washing over the Netherlands like "a tsunami."
Dutch embassies all over the world have been told to highlight that the Dutch government is not backing the message of the film or any of Wilders' statements. While Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende fears that the film is able to "threaten the public order, the security and our economy," he said he cannot and does not want to censor the movie, citing the country's tradition of free speech.
At the same time, there is Holland's "tradition of respect, tolerance and responsibility. And absurd insults of certain groups are not part of that," Balkenende said in reference to Wilders' film.
Iran Warns Netherlands Not to Air Controversial 'Anti-Muslim' Film
FOXNews
A senior Iranian lawmaker warned the Netherlands on Monday not to allow the screening of what it called an anti-Islamic film produced by a Dutch politician, claiming it "reflects insulting views about the Holy Koran."
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, promised widespread protests and a review of Iran's relationship with the Netherlands if Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders' work is shown.
"If Holland will allow the broadcast of this movie, the Iranian parliament will request to reconsider our relationship with it," Boroujerdi said, according to IRNA, the official Iranian news agency. "In Iran, insulting Islam is a very sensitive matter and if the movie is broadcasted it will arouse a wave of popular hate that will be directed towards any government that insults Islam.
Wilders calls his 10-minute film "a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamicization, " and said it could air as early as this week on Dutch television.
"People who watch the movie will see that the Koran is very much alive today, leading to the destruction of everything we in the Western world stand for, which is respect and tolerance," Wilders, the 41-year-old leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, said last month in a telephone interview with FOXNews.com.
/**/
"The tsunami of Islamicization is coming to Europe. We should come to be far stronger."
Like other European countries, the Netherlands is struggling to cope with an influx of Muslim immigrants, and the newcomers are often relegated to working at low-paying jobs and living in high-crime ghettos. Though the Dutch boast of their culture of tolerance, tensions have been high, with some blaming rising unemployment and crime on newcomers from Muslim countries like Turkey, Morocco and Somalia.
In the late 1990s, political leaders like Pim Fortuyn, Somalian-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali and outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh seemed to tap into a growing well of resentment against Muslims and criticism of Islam.
In 2002, tensions broke into outright murder when Fortuyn was shot by an animal rights activist who told the judge in the case that he was acting on behalf of the country's Muslims. Two years later, van Gogh was shot, stabbed and nearly decapitated on an Amsterdam street by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Muslim and a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent.
Van Gogh, with Hirsi Ali, had recently made the film "Submission," a 10-minute movie that the two said depicted the abuse of women in Islamic cultures. After van Gogh's murder, the Dutch government placed public figures known for their anti-Muslim stances in safehouses.
Among them was Wilders.
He hasn't been out of government protection since, a situation he said "I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," and his views on Islam have only hardened.
Five months ago, he called for the Koran to be outlawed in the Netherlands.
"I believe our culture is much better than the retarded Islamic cultures," he told FOXNews.com. "Ninety-nine percent of the intolerance in the world comes back to the Islamic religion and the Koran."
Though he refuses to claim the mantle of van Gogh's successor, Wilders clearly sees himself as continuing the controversial filmmaker's work. He acknowledges the similarities between "Submission" and his own 10-minute work.
"I have so much respect for van Gogh's movie, aimed at one part of the Koran, women's bodies, one very bad part of the Koran," Wilders said. "I will use not only that theme but many others. Of course at the end it is a different movie."
Though Wilders has remained steadfastly vague about the specific contents of his movie, saying he wants to maximize the "moment of the broadcast itself," he added that it will include "images and parts of real-time movies that really happen in the Netherlands and the U.K. and the Middle East, the intolerance of the Koran that is still alive and vivid today."
Wilders, raised Catholic but long an atheist, said he's working with professors who are experts on the Koran and Islamic culture, professional filmmakers and scriptwriters to complete his film, which he hopes to broadcast this week on "Nova," a popular news program on Dutch public television. If "Nova" refuses to air the program, he said, he will broadcast the movie using the air time his political party is guaranteed by the government.
The Dutch government, which is protecting Wilders, has publicly warned him about the potential for violence at the completion of his film and has expressed concern over his personal safety. The government is also concerned about peace within the country and interests abroad. In 2005, cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper led to Danish embassies being set on fire, multi-million-dollar anti-Danish consumer boycotts in the Middle East, and hundreds of deaths in riots across the Muslim world.
"The government is taking the announcement of this movie quite seriously," said Floris van Hovell, a spokesman for the Dutch Embassy in Washington, D.C. "Obviously, because the movie hasn't been made, we cannot say anything about the movie until the movie has been shown, but the message Mr. Wilders has told us he wants to portray is disturbing."
Asked if the government plans to beef up security, Van Hovell last month said the government is making a concerted effort to reach out to the Muslim community in the Netherlands and the larger Muslim world.
"We're explaining that in the Netherlands you have freedom of expression, and that at the same time the Dutch government is very concerned about the message Mr. Wilders supposedly wants to portray in his movie," van Hovell said. --(FOX News)
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, promised widespread protests and a review of Iran's relationship with the Netherlands if Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders' work is shown.
"If Holland will allow the broadcast of this movie, the Iranian parliament will request to reconsider our relationship with it," Boroujerdi said, according to IRNA, the official Iranian news agency. "In Iran, insulting Islam is a very sensitive matter and if the movie is broadcasted it will arouse a wave of popular hate that will be directed towards any government that insults Islam.
Wilders calls his 10-minute film "a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamicization, " and said it could air as early as this week on Dutch television.
"People who watch the movie will see that the Koran is very much alive today, leading to the destruction of everything we in the Western world stand for, which is respect and tolerance," Wilders, the 41-year-old leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, said last month in a telephone interview with FOXNews.com.
/**/
"The tsunami of Islamicization is coming to Europe. We should come to be far stronger."
Like other European countries, the Netherlands is struggling to cope with an influx of Muslim immigrants, and the newcomers are often relegated to working at low-paying jobs and living in high-crime ghettos. Though the Dutch boast of their culture of tolerance, tensions have been high, with some blaming rising unemployment and crime on newcomers from Muslim countries like Turkey, Morocco and Somalia.
In the late 1990s, political leaders like Pim Fortuyn, Somalian-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali and outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh seemed to tap into a growing well of resentment against Muslims and criticism of Islam.
In 2002, tensions broke into outright murder when Fortuyn was shot by an animal rights activist who told the judge in the case that he was acting on behalf of the country's Muslims. Two years later, van Gogh was shot, stabbed and nearly decapitated on an Amsterdam street by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Muslim and a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent.
Van Gogh, with Hirsi Ali, had recently made the film "Submission," a 10-minute movie that the two said depicted the abuse of women in Islamic cultures. After van Gogh's murder, the Dutch government placed public figures known for their anti-Muslim stances in safehouses.
Among them was Wilders.
He hasn't been out of government protection since, a situation he said "I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," and his views on Islam have only hardened.
Five months ago, he called for the Koran to be outlawed in the Netherlands.
"I believe our culture is much better than the retarded Islamic cultures," he told FOXNews.com. "Ninety-nine percent of the intolerance in the world comes back to the Islamic religion and the Koran."
Though he refuses to claim the mantle of van Gogh's successor, Wilders clearly sees himself as continuing the controversial filmmaker's work. He acknowledges the similarities between "Submission" and his own 10-minute work.
"I have so much respect for van Gogh's movie, aimed at one part of the Koran, women's bodies, one very bad part of the Koran," Wilders said. "I will use not only that theme but many others. Of course at the end it is a different movie."
Though Wilders has remained steadfastly vague about the specific contents of his movie, saying he wants to maximize the "moment of the broadcast itself," he added that it will include "images and parts of real-time movies that really happen in the Netherlands and the U.K. and the Middle East, the intolerance of the Koran that is still alive and vivid today."
Wilders, raised Catholic but long an atheist, said he's working with professors who are experts on the Koran and Islamic culture, professional filmmakers and scriptwriters to complete his film, which he hopes to broadcast this week on "Nova," a popular news program on Dutch public television. If "Nova" refuses to air the program, he said, he will broadcast the movie using the air time his political party is guaranteed by the government.
The Dutch government, which is protecting Wilders, has publicly warned him about the potential for violence at the completion of his film and has expressed concern over his personal safety. The government is also concerned about peace within the country and interests abroad. In 2005, cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper led to Danish embassies being set on fire, multi-million-dollar anti-Danish consumer boycotts in the Middle East, and hundreds of deaths in riots across the Muslim world.
"The government is taking the announcement of this movie quite seriously," said Floris van Hovell, a spokesman for the Dutch Embassy in Washington, D.C. "Obviously, because the movie hasn't been made, we cannot say anything about the movie until the movie has been shown, but the message Mr. Wilders has told us he wants to portray is disturbing."
Asked if the government plans to beef up security, Van Hovell last month said the government is making a concerted effort to reach out to the Muslim community in the Netherlands and the larger Muslim world.
"We're explaining that in the Netherlands you have freedom of expression, and that at the same time the Dutch government is very concerned about the message Mr. Wilders supposedly wants to portray in his movie," van Hovell said. --(FOX News)
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Unease in the Netherlands over MP's planned anti-Islam film
THE HAGUE (AFP) — The plans by far-right MP Geert Wilders to make a film that he says will show the Koran is "an inspiration for murder" has caused unease in the Netherlands which fears violent repercussions.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said that Wilders' plans and the international attention they are getting is causing the government headaches.
"We have seen other crises but this is a substantial one," he told Dutch public television.
Wilders, the head of the far-right Freedom Party, announced in November that he planned to release a 10-minute film this month that will show his view that Islam's holy book, the Koran, "is an inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror".
Nobody knows for sure if the film project will ever see the light of day but the government here is bracing for the worst.
Some observers fear Wilders will burn or tear up Islam's holy book in the movie, likely to prompt protests in Muslim countries.
The Hague fears a repeat of the 2005 riots when thousands took to the streets in Muslim countries to protest cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that appeared in a Danish newspaper.
"We are ready to react quickly, it is our role to be prepared for calamities," Balkenende told journalists.
The government is trying to get the message across abroad that while the famed Dutch tolerance guarantees Wilders the freedom of expression, The Hague does not support his opinions.
Wilders, whose party has nine of the parliament's 150 seats, is a remarkable presence in Dutch politics with his bleached blonde bouffant hairdo and his increasingly harsh comments about Islam and established political parties.
He won't comment on what his movie will actually show and refuses to be swayed by the government's concern about the possible effects of his film.
"Now that everybody is already in a state (over the film) I see it as a confirmation that I should go ahead. I would not be worth a button if I were to capitulate now," he told the HP/De Tijd magazine.
It is not sure how the film will be shown: on television, posted on the Internet or in another way.
In November Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen met with Wilders personally "to point out the risks in making such a movie for himself and his entourage, and for the Netherlands and the Dutch interests abroad," Verhagen's spokesman Bart Rijs said
The government is also working to minimise the possible fallout of Wilders' film in the Netherlands itself.
The MP has already received many death threats and he has been under round-the-clock protection since the November 2004 murder of outspoken columnist and filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a radical Muslim.
Van Gogh was killed in Amsterdam after he directed a controversial film written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- a former political ally of Wilders -- which examined the subordination of women in Islamic society.
Inter-ethnic tensions flared in the Netherlands after the murder but calm returned after a few months. Several mosques and some churches were set ablaze but nobody was severely wounded or died in the protests.
To try to defuse tensions here the Dutch police diversity watchdog LECD advised the police force this week to be "flexible" with possible legal complaints about the movie.
Police officers should write up complaints from citizens even if "no obvious criminal offence" is committed in the film. According to the diversity watchdog this will help people "vent their anger".
On Wednesday the Netherlands got a taste of a possible reaction of the Muslim world when the Grand Mufti of Syria Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that if Wilders burns or tears up the Koran in his film "this will mean he wants war and bloodshed".
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said that Wilders' plans and the international attention they are getting is causing the government headaches.
"We have seen other crises but this is a substantial one," he told Dutch public television.
Wilders, the head of the far-right Freedom Party, announced in November that he planned to release a 10-minute film this month that will show his view that Islam's holy book, the Koran, "is an inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror".
Nobody knows for sure if the film project will ever see the light of day but the government here is bracing for the worst.
Some observers fear Wilders will burn or tear up Islam's holy book in the movie, likely to prompt protests in Muslim countries.
The Hague fears a repeat of the 2005 riots when thousands took to the streets in Muslim countries to protest cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that appeared in a Danish newspaper.
"We are ready to react quickly, it is our role to be prepared for calamities," Balkenende told journalists.
The government is trying to get the message across abroad that while the famed Dutch tolerance guarantees Wilders the freedom of expression, The Hague does not support his opinions.
Wilders, whose party has nine of the parliament's 150 seats, is a remarkable presence in Dutch politics with his bleached blonde bouffant hairdo and his increasingly harsh comments about Islam and established political parties.
He won't comment on what his movie will actually show and refuses to be swayed by the government's concern about the possible effects of his film.
"Now that everybody is already in a state (over the film) I see it as a confirmation that I should go ahead. I would not be worth a button if I were to capitulate now," he told the HP/De Tijd magazine.
It is not sure how the film will be shown: on television, posted on the Internet or in another way.
In November Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen met with Wilders personally "to point out the risks in making such a movie for himself and his entourage, and for the Netherlands and the Dutch interests abroad," Verhagen's spokesman Bart Rijs said
The government is also working to minimise the possible fallout of Wilders' film in the Netherlands itself.
The MP has already received many death threats and he has been under round-the-clock protection since the November 2004 murder of outspoken columnist and filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a radical Muslim.
Van Gogh was killed in Amsterdam after he directed a controversial film written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- a former political ally of Wilders -- which examined the subordination of women in Islamic society.
Inter-ethnic tensions flared in the Netherlands after the murder but calm returned after a few months. Several mosques and some churches were set ablaze but nobody was severely wounded or died in the protests.
To try to defuse tensions here the Dutch police diversity watchdog LECD advised the police force this week to be "flexible" with possible legal complaints about the movie.
Police officers should write up complaints from citizens even if "no obvious criminal offence" is committed in the film. According to the diversity watchdog this will help people "vent their anger".
On Wednesday the Netherlands got a taste of a possible reaction of the Muslim world when the Grand Mufti of Syria Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that if Wilders burns or tears up the Koran in his film "this will mean he wants war and bloodshed".
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