Iran Condemns Anti-Islamic Dutch Film "Fitna"

28 March 2008 -- Iran's Foreign Ministry says European governments should move to stop the showing of a film by a far-right Dutch lawmaker that says the Koran incites violence.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammed Ali Hosseini, called the film anti-Islamic and anti-cultural.

The filmmaker, Geert Wilders, posted the film on his political party's Internet site on Thursday after Dutch television refused to broadcast it.

The film, called "Fitna," alternates pictures of terrorist attacks - including the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 - with quotations from the Muslim holy book.

Wilders says one of his main points in making the film was a belief that rising Muslim immigration threatens democratic values in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende says the film has no purpose other than to offend, and he rejects the film's premise that equates Islam with violence.

In 2005, Muslims in much of the world mounted protests against Denmark after Danish newspapers published satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad found by Muslims to be offensive.

(Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.)

Source: VOANews.com

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