Iranian Legislators Protest at campaign against Islam in Netherlands

Iranian parliamentarians in a letter to their Dutch counterparts voiced their strong protest at the European state's growing campaign against Islam and Muslims.The Iranian MPs, from different political groups, wings and factions including representatives of the religious minorities, called on the Dutch lawmakers to draft and approve a set of laws to confront the spread of Islamophobia in the Netherlands. They also urged the Dutch officials and MPs to make the needed arrangements and adopt the necessary measures to provide equal citizens' rights for the Muslim minority in their country. Actions such as making films like 'Fitna' and publishing satirical cartoons and offensive articles against Islam, lack of freedom for studying the holocaust issue, preventing the construction of mosques and provoking and promoting Islamophobia in the Netherlands are not justifiable, the letter reiterated. Iranian lawmakers had also earlier urged President Ahmadinejad to review ties with Denmark and the Netherlands over the reprinting of a satirical cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Danish and Dutch newspapers. Protests erupted in 2006 in Muslim countries around the world when the cartoons first appeared in a Danish daily. Muslims consider depictions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) offensive. Danish newspapers reprinted one of the drawings. At least two Dutch newspapers published pictures of the Danish newspapers, with the cartoon visible. In a letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2008, some 215 MPs in Iran's parliament said Tehran should review trade and political links with Denmark and the Netherlands to respond to the anti-Islamic and Islamophobic stream in the two countries.