NATO Secretary General, Dutchman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, expressed concern yesterday that showing a film attacking Islam could harm the alliance's forces in Afghanistan: "If because of it the troops find themselves under fire, then I am alarmed." The 15-minute film “Fitna” (translated from Arabic as “Troubles”) was made under the direction of the Dutchman Geert Wilders, a parliamentarian and leader of the far-right Freedom Party, which has nine seats in the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch parliament. Mr Wilders says the film will expose the Koran as "the inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror". He plans to air the film on television this month and post the video online. This was strongly opposed by Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. In Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif, demonstrators on Sunday burned Dutch flags and demanded that President Hamid Karzai “kick out” Dutch soldiers from the country, and at the same time Denmark, where newspapers publish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Recently, Wilders’ film was shown to a group of Dutch experts, who concluded that the short film contains “provocative scenes regarding Islam and the traditional views of Muslims.” The chances of the film being banned are slim, although lawyers say it "could pose a threat to national security, public order, Dutch citizens and companies abroad." The government warned Wilders about this, and Foreign Minister Maxim Verhachen and representatives of the business community called on him to refrain from his plans.
