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.
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