Europe News
Dutch businesses demand compensation from anti-Islam MP
By DPA
Mar 29, 2008, 14:14 GMT

Amsterdam - Dutch employers association VNO-NCW demanded that legislator Geert Wilders compensate Dutch businesses abroad which have been harmed by his controversial film Fitna, chairman Bernard Wientjes said in an interview with the daily Het Financieele Dagblad on Saturday.

On Thursday, Islam-critic Wilders released a 16-minute film Fitna, warning of radical Islam and the alleged 'Islamization' of the Netherlands.

Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad called for a boycott of Dutch business after Malaysian authorities condemned the film, Dutch media reported.

Earlier, around 30 Jordanian newspapers, radio stations and websites launched a bid for a boycott of Dutch businesses.

Several Arab countries are due to discuss Wilders' film Fitna at the Arab summit in Damascus this weekend.

'If they decide to boycott Dutch businesses, it will harm Dutch exports. Companies like Shell, Philips and Unilever are easily recognizable as Dutch companies,' Wenties told Het Financieele Dagblad.

'I do not know how rich Geert Wilders is, and whether he has a good insurance. But if there is a boycott, we will investigate whether we can hold Wilders accountable.'

Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and Dutch-Moroccan rapper Salah Edin have each threatened legal action against Wilders unless he removes their copyrighted work from Fitna.

Wilders used Westergaard's famous caricature of the Prophet Mohammed without his permission and without paying copyright.

In the case of Edin, known for his derogatory and discriminatory rap texts about Dutch society and women, and also a Holocaust denier, Wilders erroneously used his picture to portray Mohammed Bouyeri, the convicted killer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

The photo originated from the cover of a 2007 rap album entitled The Dutch Biggest Nightmare in which Edin was posing as a lookalike of Mohammed Bouyeri, an image he has maintained ever since.

In Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani denounced Fitna and told parliament, 'We strongly condemn this film.'

Meanwhile, internet provider LiveLeak has removed Fitna from its website.

A statement published on www.liveleak.com, said, 'Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill-informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, LiveLeak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.'

LiveLeak says it is a 'sad day for freedom of speech on the net.'

Fitna can still be watched on the internet. The Freedom Party website, www.pvv.nl, has two links to the film. It can also be viewed on the website of a Dutch current affairs programme, www.novatv.nl.

Wilders has praised Dutch Muslims for their 'mature response' to his film.

The vast majority of Dutch Muslim organizations reacted relatively unperturbed to Fitna. All of them said they would be happy to discuss the problems of radical Islam with Wilders.

The reaction of Dutch Muslims' was wiser and showed more leadership than that of the entire Dutch government, and particularly Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, in the weeks leading up to the release of Fitna, Wilders said.

While Balkenende had not asked Wilders to withhold the film, several other cabinet ministers stressed that the latter had to 'take responsibility' for the potentially far-reaching implications of his film and for the safety of Dutch people abroad.

The prime minister also said Wilders' film could damage Dutch business abroad.

A survey conducted by polling agency Synovate/Interview NSS conducted on Friday showed Geert Wilders' Freedom Party would win 10 seats in the 150-member parliament if elections were held today, over 12 seats in last week's poll.

The Freedom Party currently holds nine seats in the 150 member parliament.

Meanwhile, rioting youths set two cars ablaze in Utrecht, a police spokesman confirmed Saturday saying the unrest was 'regular youth vandalism,' but with an 'anti-Wilders flavour.'

Witnesses said they saw four male teenagers and students scrawling graffiti on walls and containers calling for the death of Wilders.