Anti-Quran film expected to test the limits of Dutch tolerance

Anti-Quran film expected to test the limits of Dutch tolerance - International News



Anti-Quran film expected to test the limits of Dutch tolerance

The Hague (Netherlands): A maverick lawmaker's planned anti-Quran film has the Dutch wrestling with the limits of their centuries-old traditions of tolerance and free speech.

It also has the government scrambling to limit potential fallout in the Muslim world if the film is aired, as well as in its own Muslim community: the maker of a previous film critical of Islam was brutally murdered on a Dutch street.

Embassies overseas are being kept posted on a national debate about Islam unleashed by Geert Wilders, the 42-year-old leader of the Freedom Party, who sees a ''tsunami of Islamization'' engulfing the Netherlands, whose population of 16.3 million includes 850,000 Muslims.

Wilders says his film — which he has not yet finished, nobody has seen and is expected to be only about 10 minutes long — will expose how the Quran fosters intolerance of women and homosexuals and is used by radicals to incite violence.

''There are concerns here and abroad that the film could be offensive and could lead to reactions that endanger public order, security and the economy,'' Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said last week. ''The government is preparing for possible reactions to the film here and overseas.''

Dutch diplomats in Islamic nations are making clear that while the government strongly disagrees with Wilders' extreme views, it cannot stop him expressing them. Cities across the Netherlands also are on alert for possible protests.

''The Netherlands has a tradition of freedom of speech, religion and lifestyle. The Netherlands also has a tradition of respect, tolerance and responsibility. Unnecessarily offending certain groups does not belong here,'' Balkenende said. ''The government will respect both these traditions and appeals to all sides to do the same.''

Once Wilders has finished the film he still has to find a broadcaster prepared to air it. If he cannot find one, he says he will post it on the Internet.

Wilders is iconic for the Stop Islamisation Of Europe movement, a loose alliance of far-righters in a dozen or so European nations who say Islam is becoming ''a dominant political force in Europe.''

While far-righters are united in their rejection of multiculturalism and resent immigration, especially from Islamic nations, Wilders is so outspoken on both issues that he is in a league of his own.

He calls Islam intensely intolerant and wants the Dutch government to ban the Quran (''that horrible, fascist book that incites violence'') as it outlawed Adolf Hitler's ''Mein Kampf'' after the Second World War. He has lived with round-the-clock security for more than three years because of his views.

Source: AP