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Amsterdam: The Dutch government is looking into whether it can stop a politician from releasing an anti-Quran film, fearing attacks on its citizens and businesses, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Government lawyers are looking into whether there are legal grounds to ban the film by anti-immigration lawmaker Geert Wilders, the Telegraaf reported, citing sources close to the Cabinet.
No comment from the government was immediately available.
The newspaper said the coalition government was divided on the film with the Christian Democrats more in favour of a ban while Labour was pushing freedom of expression.
About 1,000 Afghans protested on Sunday against the republication of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in Danish newspapers and Wilders's plan to air the film.
The protesters, mostly religious clerics in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, marched and demanded the withdrawal of Danish and Dutch troops from Afghanistan.
PM's warning
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.
Wilders is calling the film Fitna, an Arabic term sometimes translated as "strife".
In 2006 demonstrations and rioting erupted in many Muslim countries after Danish cartoons appeared in a Danish newspaper. At least 50 people were killed and three Danish embassies attacked.
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