THE HAGUE, March 6: The Dutch foreign minister met ambassadors from 30 Muslim countries on Wednesday to discuss the imminent broadcast of an anti-Islam film made by a far-right Dutch parliamentarian, his office said.
The talks, held at the request of the 50-strong Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), came as several Muslim countries threatened an economic boycott of the Netherlands if the film is shown.
“There was a meeting this morning, requested by the OIC, to hear the Dutch government’s point of view on Geert Wilders’ film,” a spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said.
Thirty ambassadors, based either in the Netherlands or in neighbouring Belgium, attended the meeting.
The Dutch government has twice tried and failed to convince Wilders — the leader of the far-right Freedom Party — not to broadcast his film, fearing a repeat of the worldwide protests which met the publication of sacrilegious cartoons by Danish newspapers.
Verhagen pointed out that “the government is fundamentally in disagreement with Wilders” and that “in the internal Dutch debate, both freedom of expression and religious liberty have their place.”
Iran, Egypt and Pakistan have all criticised the film as a “gratuitous attack” on the Muslim faith and threatened an economic boycott.
TERROR ALERT: Meanwhile, the international uproar about the planned release of the film prompted the Netherlands to raise its terrorism alert level on Thursday.
“While there are no concrete indications of impending attacks in the Netherlands, the increased international terrorism threat has prompted to raise the threat level for the Netherlands from ‘limited’ to ‘substantial’,” the justice ministry said.—AFP
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