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Dutch Brace for Terror Before Koran Shredding

Right-wing pol vows to air anti-Muslim film

By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 21, 2008 5:02 AM CST

(Newser) – The Dutch government expects violent protests in response to an anti-Muslim film—said to include images of the Koran being shredded—that a right-wing lawmaker has vowed to make public this month. Geert Wilders, one of nine members of an extremist party in the Dutch lower house, aims to expose the Koran as a “source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror,” the Guardian reports.

Dutch counter-terrorism agencies are prepping security plans, and the country’s foreign minister has slammed Wilders. “Freedom of expression doesn’t mean the right to offend," he said. The Netherlands hopes to avoid a repeat of the Muslim backlash that followed the publication of controversial cartoons in a Danish newspaper.

Protesters demonstrate outside the editorial office of the local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda in Orebro, Sweden Friday Aug. 31 2007. They demanded an apology for a cartoon showing the prophet Muhammed portrayed as a dog that was published in the newspaper's August 19 edition. The Dutch government is bracing for violent...
Protesters demonstrate outside the editorial office of the local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda in Orebro, Sweden Friday Aug. 31 2007. They demanded an apology for a cartoon showing the prophet Muhammed...   (Associated Press)
Geert Wilders, second right, is surrounded by security agents in IJmuiden, Netherlands, in this May 26, 2005 file photo. The Dutch conservative lawmaker said Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007 he threatened to air a film which highlights what he describes as fascist passages in the Quran, his latest high profile criticism...
Geert Wilders, second right, is surrounded by security agents in IJmuiden, Netherlands, in this May 26, 2005 file photo. The Dutch conservative lawmaker said Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007 he threatened to...   (Associated Press)
An activist, holding a placard describing Dutch MP Geert Wilders as an extremist and harmful to Dutch society, pickets a market in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008. The maverick lawmaker's planned anti-Quran film has the Dutch wrestling with the limits of their centuries-old traditions of tolerance and freedom of...
An activist, holding a placard describing Dutch MP Geert Wilders as an extremist and harmful to Dutch society, pickets a market in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008. The maverick lawmaker's...   (Associated Press)
From her self-imposed exile in Washington, Hirsi Ali last week criticised the new film as 'provocation' and called on the major Dutch political parties to restart a debate on immigration that has split Dutch society in recent years, rather than leave the field to extremists, the Guardian says.
From her self-imposed exile in Washington, Hirsi Ali last week criticised the new film as 'provocation' and called on the major Dutch political parties to restart a debate on immigration that has split...   (Getty Images)
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