Netherlands to Get Backing from EU Counterparts over Anti-Quran Film
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: BRUSSELS, Belgium: The Netherlands is asking for European Union solidarity at a summit of the bloc's leaders in case the expected release of an anti-Quran film by a maverick Dutch lawmaker leads to violence, officials said Thursday.

And the EU, which said 2 1/2 years ago that publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed deemed offensive by Muslims went too far, appeared set to back the Dutch position on freedom of speech. The issue was to be discussed later Thursday.

The Dutch lawmaker, Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, has said he plans to air the film this month. Dutch and other European officials fear the film could spark violent protests in Muslim countries similar to those held after the publication of the cartoons in Denmark.

The Netherlands has been warned by Islamic figures and countries, including Iran, that releasing the film would lead to violence there. It wants other EU countries to support its view that it cannot silence Wilders due to the constitutional right to freedom of expression.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told fellow Christian Democratic leaders — including German Chancellor Angela Merkel — meeting before the summit that his government does not share Wilders' anti-Islam views but it respects his right to air his views. Officials: Netherlands to get backing from EU counterparts over anti-Quran film >>> Associated Press

NIS NEWS BULLETIN:
Netherlands Wants No Explicit Statement on Freedom of Speech

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Wilders Says His Film Is Legal
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: The Hague - The leader of the right-wing Freedom Party, Geert Wilders says there is nothing illegal about his anti-Qur'an film Fitna. He is negotiating with a number of television stations about their broadcasting the film, under the condition that it be sent out in its entirety.

Mr Wilders hopes to find a television station willing to broadcast the 15-minute film within the next few days; otherwise he will show it at a press conference later this month and then broadcast it via the internet. He is willing to show the film to National Anti-Terrorism Coordinator Tjebbe Joustra one day before its broadcast. However, he wants a guarantee that the film will not be banned. Sources in the Justice Department say such a guarantee cannot be given.

In the Afghan capital Kabul around 300 MPs demonstrated against the Wilders film and the Danish cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad. They demanded that the Afghan government deliver an official protest to the Dutch and Danish governments. [Source: Wilders says his film is legal >>>]

NIS NEWS BULLETIN:
Wilders is Refusing to Let Government See his Film

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Anti-Qur’an Film to Air in the Netherlands
Photo of Geert Wilders courtesy of Google Images
ASSOCIATED PRESS: THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Protesters already have torched Dutch flags in Afghanistan ahead of a new Dutch film portraying Islam's holy book as a "fascist" text that incites violence and preaches the oppression of women and homosexuals.

A Dutch Cabinet minister postponed his trip to Somalia on Friday due to "specific threats" linked to the film, and the Dutch government has urged lawmaker Geert Wilders to scrap his film for the safety of its citizens abroad.

But Wilders said Monday he has begun negotiations with Dutch broadcasters about airing the 15-minute film, "Fitna." He said he will only allow them to show it in its entirety, and if they refuse, he plans to show it to the media and post it on the Internet.

"We have never learned to be intolerant toward people who are intolerant toward us, toward cultures that are intolerant toward us," he said in a recent Associated Press interview.

The right-wing legislator previously warned of a "tsunami" of Islam swamping the Netherlands and said Muslims should tear up half of the Quran if they want to live here.

Wilders has lived under round-the-clock security since the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic radical enraged by his short film, "Submission," a fictional study of abused Muslim women with scenes of near-naked women with Quranic texts engraved on their flesh.

The film "Fitna" — an Arabic word meaning discord — puts the centuries-old Dutch traditions of religious tolerance and freedom of speech on a collision course.

If it airs, Dutch Muslims are expected to file criminal complaints for racial or religious vilification. Prosecutors would then have to decide whether to charge Wilders with any offense.

"Our law is very clear — anybody can make a film. We have freedom of expression and you cannot restrict that," says Moroccan-born Sadik Harchaoui, chief of the Forum Institute for Multicultural Development.

"Can you offend people? The answer is yes. I'm not saying you should do it or it is desirable, but you can," he added. "But if the film is insulting and preaches hate, then the law has to take action."

The Dutch government says it cannot ban the film but is attempting to distance itself from Wilders, the leader of the Freedom Party, which holds nine of Parliament's 150 seats. Anti-Quran Film to Air in Netherlands >>> By Mike Corder

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)