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Malaysian Islamists call for a boycott of Dutch products

Malaysia's conservative Islamic party PAS yesterday urged Muslims worldwide to boycott Dutch products to protest against an anti-Islamic film by a far-right Dutch lawmaker.

"We strongly urge Muslims all over the world to boycott all Dutch products effective immediately," PAS youth chief Salahuddin Ayub said.

"We firmly express our deepest resentment over the production of the offensive film by Dutch MP [member of parliament] Geert Wilders," he said.

The short film Fitna ("Discord" in Arabic) was released on the Internet on Thursday and has provoked widespread condemnation, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling it "offensively anti-Islamic."

Dutch businesses on Saturday threatened to sue far-right lawmaker Wilders if his film led to a boycott.

On Saturday, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said that if the world's 1.3 billion Muslims boycotted Dutch products, the country's industries would be forced to shut down.

"If Muslims unite, it will be easy to take action. If we boycott Dutch products, they will have to close down their businesses," he said.

The film Fitna features violent imagery of extremist attacks which it linked to verses from the Koran.

Salahuddin said that Islam did not condone terrorism.

Meanwhile, about 50 members of a hardline Indonesian Muslim group held a rowdy protest outside the Dutch embassy in Jakarta yesterday, calling for the death of Wilders.

Dozens of police officers, with two water cannons at the ready, did not intervene during the protest by white-clad members of the Islamic Defenders' Front, some of whom hurled eggs and plastic water bottles over the wall of the compound of the Dutch embassy.

"I call on Muslims around the world, if you run into the maker of the film, kill him," Awit Mashuri, one of the speakers at the demonstration, told the crowd.

"Geert Wilders is a Christian terrorist," a placard held by a protester said. "Kill Geert Wilders," another read.

The Front is notorious for its past raids on nightspots the group accused of harboring prostitutes and drug dealers. In 2003, the group's leader, Mohammad Rizieq Shihab, was jailed for seven months for inciting violence.

Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who made a film accusing Islam of condoning violence against women, was killed by a militant Islamist in 2004.
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