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The demonstrators held placards with slogans in English that read 'Holland go to hell' and called the film's maker Geert Wilders 'the Christian terrorist'. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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JAKARTA - DOZENS of Indonesian demonstrators gathered outside the Dutch embassy here to protest against an anti-Islam film posted on the Internet by a far-right Dutch lawmaker.
Protesters waved placards with anti-Dutch slogans and threw water and eggs at the embassy building in Jakarta on Monday.
Around 50 people turned up for the demonstration, organised by Muslim group FPI, or Islamic Defenders Front, but armoured police vans and around 100 officers carrying riot shields kept them away from the building.
The demonstrators held placards with slogans in English that read 'Holland go to hell' and called the film's maker Geert Wilders 'the Christian terrorist'.
'We don't just want an apology, we want legal action to be taken against him (Wilders),' protest organiser Mohammad Machsuni told journalists at the demonstration, to cheers of 'Allahu akbar', or 'God is greater' from the crowd.
Protester Abdulrohman Jaeleni said the film was an insult to Islam.
'The government in Indonesia has the obligation to sever ties with the Netherlands and to oust all Dutch citizens. If they cannot, we can,' he said.
The 17-minute film Fitna, was released on the Internet on Thursday and has provoked widespread condemnation, with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon calling it 'offensively anti-Islamic'. On Saturday, Indonesia's social affairs minister Bachtiar Chamsyah called on Islamic organisations in the former Dutch colony to protest, and hundreds of students from an Islamic school took to the streets the following day in Central Java province.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation with some 90 per cent of its 230 million people following Islam.
The FPI enjoys relatively little support among ordinary Indonesians, who typically practise a tolerant form of Islam.
It made headlines in 1999 when it launched violent anti-vice raids on bars and other 'sinful' venues.
It also held demonstrations against the local debut of United States adult magazine Playboy in 2006, forcing the publisher to move to the Hindu-majority island of Bali. -- AFP
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