By Niclas Mika
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -
Muslim nations on Friday condemned a
film by a Dutch lawmaker that accuses the Koran of inciting
violence, and Dutch Muslim leaders urged restraint.
Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom
Party, launched his short video on the Internet on Thursday
evening, prompting an al Qaeda-linked website to call for his
death and increased attacks on Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan.
"The correct Sharia (Islamic law) response is to cut (off)
his head and let him follow his predecessor, van Gogh, to
hell," a member of Al-Ekhlaas wrote on the al-Qaeda affiliated
forum, according to the SITE Institute, a U.S.-based terrorism
monitoring service.
Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who made a film accusing
Islam of condoning violence against women, was murdered by a
militant Islamist in 2004.
The film urges Muslims to tear out "hate-filled" verses
from the Koran and starts and ends with a cartoon of the
Prophet Mohammad with a bomb under his turban, accompanied by
the sound of ticking.
The cartoon, first published in Danish newspapers, ignited
violent protests around the world and a boycott of Danish
products in 2006. Many Muslims regard any depiction of the
Prophet as offensive.
"The film is solely intended to incite and provoke unrest
and intolerance among people of different religious beliefs and
to jeopardize world peace and stability," the 57-nation
Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the film as
"offensively anti-Islamic" and U.N. High Commissioner for Human
Rights Louise Arbour said it was "hateful."
Iran called the film heinous, blasphemous and anti-Islamic,
and Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation and a
former Dutch colony, said it was an "insult to Islam, hidden
under the cover of freedom of expression."
The Saudi Arabian embassy in The Hague said the film was
provocative and full of errors and incorrect allegations that
could lead to hate towards Muslims, news agency ANP reported.
HEAVY GUARD
Dutch Muslim leaders appealed for calm and called on
Muslims worldwide not to target Dutch interests. The
Netherlands is home to about 1 million Muslims out of a
population of 16 million.
"Our call to Muslims abroad is follow our strategy and
don't frustrate it with any violent incidents," Mohammed
Rabbae, a Dutch Moroccan community leader, told journalists in
an Amsterdam mosque.
The Dutch Islamic Federation went to court on Friday to try
to stop Wilders from comparing Islam to fascism.
Pollster Maurice de Hond found that only 12 percent of
those questioned thought the film represented Islam accurately,
but 43 percent agreed Islam was a serious threat to the
Netherlands over the long term.
Wilders has been under guard because of death threats since
the murder of van Gogh and Freedom Party support rose in
anticipation of the film to about 10 percent of the vote.
tried to prevent the kind of backlash Denmark suffered over the
Prophet cartoons.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he was proud of
how Dutch Muslim organizations responded to the film but that
it was too early to draw conclusions about the international
consequences: "There are reasons for continued alertness."
NATO has expressed concern the film could worsen security
for foreign forces in Afghanistan, including 1,650 Dutch
troops. A Belgian government spokesman said security had been
stepped up at Dutch diplomatic missions in the country.
Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard objected to the use of
his drawing of the Prophet Mohammad, saying it was shown out of
context and that he had taken legal action to have it removed.
SITE said responses to the Wilders film on al Ekhlaas and
another al-Qaeda affiliated website, al Hesbah, were
significantly lower in volume compared to the cartoons uproar.
(Additional reporting by Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Jakarta,
Tehran, Islamabad, Aarhus and Brussels bureau; Writing by Emma
Thomasson; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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