Right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders has posted on his political party's Internet website an anti-Koran film that Dutch television refused to broadcast.
The film, called "Fitna," alternates pictures of terrorist attacks - including the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 - with quotations from the Muslim holy book.
Wilders says one of his main points in making the film was a belief that rising Muslim immigration threatens democratic values in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.
The film ends with a picture of a hand grabbing a page from the Koran with the sound of paper tearing. The sound comes from a page ripped out of a telephone book. Wilders says it is up to Muslims, not him, to tear verses out of the Koran that he says incite violence.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende says the film has no purpose other than to offend, and he rejects the film's premise that equates Islam with violence.
The Dutch leader says he is pleased Muslims have shown restraint following the film's release on Wilders website.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
