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TEHERAN - IRAN'S Foreign Ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to the Islamic Republic on Sunday to protest against a film by a Dutch lawmaker that accuses the Quran of inciting violence, state radio said.
A senior diplomat from Slovenia, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was also summoned, the radio said.
The Netherlands is a member of the 27-nation bloc.
Iran has denounced the film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders as 'heinous' and called on European governments to block any further showing.
'Following the propagation of the insulting and anti-Islamic film by the radical Dutch parliamentarian, the Dutch ambassador and the Slovenian charge d?affaires were summoned to the Foreign Ministry,' state radio said.
Mr Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, launched his short video on the Internet on Thursday, prompting an Al-Qaeda-linked website to call for his death and attacks on Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan.
The film 'Fitna' - an Arabic term sometimes translated as 'strife' ? intersperses images of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and Islamist bombings with quotations from the Quran, Islam's holy book.
Film drew condemnation from world leaders
SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA'S foreign minister on Sunday added his voice to the chorus of condemnation of the anti-Islam film, calling it 'highly offensive'.
Mr Stephen Smith said Mr Wilders' film 'Fitna' equated Islam with acts of terror and other violence.
'It is an obvious attempt to generate discord between faith communities,' he said.
'Like leaders in the Muslim world and in Europe, I strongly reject the ideas contained in the film and deplore its release.
'In Australia we believe in the right to freedom of expression but we don't believe in abusing that right to incite racial hatred.'
UN chief Ban Ki Moon said it was 'offensively anti-Islamic,' while Iran and Bangladesh warned the film could have grave consequences and Pakistan protested to the Dutch ambassador.
Indonesian students protest
JAKARTA - Hundreds of Indonesian junior high students
demonstrated on Sunday against the anti-Islam film, a report said, after a minister called for protests.
The students from an Islamic school took to the streets in Magelang, in Central Java province, carrying posters demanding that authorities shut down
websites carrying Mr Wilders' film, SCTV private television reported.
On Saturday, Indonesia's social affairs minister Bachtiar Chamsyah called on Islamic organisations in the country to protest against Wilders' film, saying it showed contempt for the Muslim faith.
'I call on all to protest,' Mr Chamsyah was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency, adding that the film was irresponsible.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation with some 90 per cent of its 230 million people following Islam.
The head of the United Development Party (PPP), the country's fourth largest party, Mr Suryadharma Ali, warned that the film could damage Jakarta's relations with the Netherlands, urging official Dutch punishment of Mr Wilders.
'I demand that the government of the Netherlands punish Geert Wilders as heavily as possible because that film can damage relations between Indonesia and the Netherlands,' Mr Ali was quoted by Antara as saying.-- REUTERS, AFP
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