Fitna: Looks like the hammer's coming down.

Today, the good folks over at Klein Verzet reveal that the Dutch government is thinking of invoking censorship laws to deal with Geert Wilders and his movie. Want to invoke National Security articles! This is sad news for those of us who love freedom of speech.

Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reports that the Dutch government has researched how they can ban the Islam critical movie Fitna of parliamentary member Geert Wilders (PVV). The government thinks they have found lawful ways to invoke censorship rules in the Netherlands.

But the Dutch government, a coalition of Christian Democrats (CDA), Socialist (PvdA) and the tiny Christian Union (CU) has not yet reached consensus on how to do it, say sources close to the government. The Christian parties support censorship of Muslim critical expressions, they want to invoke National Security articles for suppressing them. Although some socialist in the government agree with that approach others do not. Socialist vice premier Wouter Bos, does not want preventive measures, he wants to legally prosecute Wilders after the releases of his 15 minute Islam critical film. But that will not be possible, if the movie is censored preventively. He also points out that the Islamic governments have some responsibility to prevent anti Dutch violence. (ed.note: don't hold your breath about those Islamic govts taking responsibility, pal.)

And it looks like NATO is even getting in on the action. NATO expresses concern over Dutch film.

NATO's secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has expressed fears that the airing of a controversial Dutch film criticizing Islam will have repercussions for troops in Afghanistan. Scheffer said he was concerned about his troops after the protests against the film in Afghanistan.Scheffer said in a television interview that if the troops find themselves in the line of fire because of the film, then he was definitely worried about it and is expressing that concern.The NATO secretary general's comments came after about 800 people took to the streets of the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday to protest against the film being made by far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

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