The Dutch government is looking into whether it can stop a politician from releasing an anti-Koran film, a newspaper reported today.
Government lawyers are looking into whether there are legal grounds to ban the film by anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders, who has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf,the Telegraafreported.
The newspaper said the coalition government, fearing attacks on its citizens and businesses, was divided on the film, with the Christian Democrats more in favour of a ban while Labour was pushing freedom of expression and calling on Muslim countries to prevent violence against the Netherlands.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende warned last week that the Netherlands risked economic sanctions and attacks against its troops because of the film, although he stopped short of saying that the film should not be broadcast.
Mr Wilders is calling the film Fitna, an Arabic term used in the Koran and sometimes translated as "strife".
Mr Wilders, the target of death threats on Islamic militant websites, said he had completed the film and was in talks with TV stations for its broadcast, slated for March or April.
His party has nine of the 150 seats in the Dutch parliament, and he has warned of a "tsunami of Islamisation" in a country that is home to nearly one million Muslims.
In 2006 demonstrations and rioting erupted in many Muslim countries after Danish cartoons, one showing the Prophet Muhammad with a turban resembling a bomb, appeared in a Danish newspaper. At least 50 people were killed and three Danish embassies attacked.
In 2004 an Islamic militant killed Dutch director Theo Van Gogh over a film accusing Islam of condoning violence against women.