> ast Updated: Monday, 10 March 2008, 16:13 GMT
>
> Dutch 'must show' anti-Islam film
>
> Kurt Westergaard now lives under round the clock police guard
> The Danish cartoonist behind drawings satirising the Prophet Muhammad
> has urged a Dutch lawmaker to air an anti-Islam film despite Muslim outrage.
> Kurt Westergaard said MP Geert Wilders should show his film, despite
> government warnings that this would damage Dutch interests.
>
> He said that no Danish politician would dare to block the film.
>
> Mr Westergaard's cartoons in a Danish paper triggered riots by Muslims
> in many countries in 2006.
>
> 'Cartoonist's job'
>
> "Wilders must show his film," Mr Westergaard told the Dutch Volkskrant
> newspaper on Monday.
>
>
> Mr Wilders is the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party
>
> "In Denmark, we have criticism of everything: the Queen, politicians,
> religion... provoking debate is the job of the newspaper and so also of the
> cartoonist. Muslims have to accept that.
>
> "A Danish politician knows that you should not limit freedom of
> expression," he said.
>
> Mr Westergaard was one of 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad
> drawings, but he was responsible for what was considered the most
> controversial of the pictures.
>
> The caricature - originally published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper
> in 2005 - featured the head of Islam's holiest prophet with a turban
> depicting a bomb with a lit fuse.
>
> The cartoons were later reprinted by more than 50 newspapers,
> triggering protests in parts of the Muslim world in 2006.
>
> Last month, Danish police arrested three people suspected of planning
> to attack Mr Westergaard, who now lives under constant protection.
>
> In response, Danish newspapers reprinted Mr Westergaard's caricatures
> to show their commitment to freedom of speech.
>
> 'Inspiration for murder'
>
> Mr Wilders originally said he would release his 15-minute film in
> March, but is under pressure from the Dutch media and officials not to show
> it.
>
> He has revealed that his work is entitled Fitna, an Arabic word
> meaning strife or discord, usually in a religious context.
>
> The lawmaker has said it show how the Koran is "an inspiration for
> intolerance, murder and terror".
>
> Last week, the Netherlands raised its terrorism alert level to
> "substantial", partly due to the expected release of the film.
>
> At the weekend, thousands of people in Afghanistan rallied against the
> reprinting of the cartoons and also condemned the planned release of Mr
> Wilders' film.
>
> Mr Wilders' project has been criticised in Iran and Pakistan.
>
> In the past, Mr Wilders - who leads the Freedom Party - has called for
> the Koran to be banned and likened it to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.
>
> Mr Wilders has had police protection since Dutch director Theo Van
> Gogh was killed by a radical Islamist in 2004.
>
> Mr Van Gogh's film Submission included verses from the Koran shown
> against a naked female body.
>
>
>
>