'Fitna' pulled from Web

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'Fitna' pulled from Web
By Ab Zagt
March 28, 2008

RELATED: Muslim nations condemn film
Anti-Koran film goes live on Web

AMSTERDAM -- The controversial anti-Muslim film by Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders has been removed from the Web by its British Internet provider, which said its employees have been seriously threatened.

"Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature and some ill-informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, LiveLeak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove 'Fitna' from our servers," the company said.

The 15-minute short film was posted Thursday and taken down Friday and had been seen by some 3 million people. In the film, presented in Dutch- and English-language versions, Wilders claims that the Koran provokes violence, using Sept. 11, the attacks in Madrid and London and the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh as examples.

In the Netherlands, most local Muslim organizations appeared not to take the Wilders project seriously. There was no disturbances of the kind that occurred three years ago following the murder of van Gogh.

Meanwhile, Wilders can expect some copyright charges from Dutch media, whose material was used in "Fitna" without permission. Also, the infamous Danish cartoon of the prophet Muhammed being hit by a bomb was used without approval.

Wilders made another mistake. When trying to show the murderer of van Gogh, he instead showed a local rap artist, Salah Edin.