'Blaspheming' movie should be prohibited says Iran government

February 16, 2008

Iran's Minister of Justice Gholam-Hossein Elham has requested that Dutch politician Geert Wilders' Qur'an film named Fitna should be prohibited by the Dutch government, Iranian press-agency IRNA reports. Elham wrote a letter to his Dutch colleague Ernst Hirsch Ballin stating that: "you can stop the process of this satanic and conspiracy movement based on the European Convention on Human Rights".

Freedom of speech cannot be the reason to allow this film, they say. "We also respect freedom of speech, but the insult of holy and ethical values is totally unacceptable," Elham writes. "The rights of Muslims all over the world are violated by this blaspheming movie." The Qur'an is the holy book for some 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.

Wilders announced his "shocking" movie to be ready in March 2008.