Wilders backs out of US anti-Islam film premiere

He may be no stranger to controversy, but even the right-wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders has his limits. The Freedom Party leader has pulled out of attending a premiere of a film about him by a US Christian organisation, over homophobic comments allegedly made by the group's leader. The group has now cancelled the screening - but says it isn't embarassed by Mr Wilders' u-turn.

Listen to an interview with Martin Mawyer of the CAN

The Christian Action Network (CAN) decided to make a film about Geert Wilders after seeing him speak in public in Boca Raton, Florida. CAN President Martin Mawyer says he was impressed by the politician's views on Islam: "We thought that churches and leaders from the religious movement needed to hear his words so we decided to take that speech, his Fitna film, and a description of Mr Wilders' problems in the Netherlands in producing Fitna, put it altogether and produce a film called Islam Rising."

U-turn
'Islam Rising: Geert Wilders' Warning to the West' was produced by PRB films and is a montage of clips from Fitna including images of hostages with guns being held to their heads and radical Muslims preaching hate at a gathering in London. It also includes news footage of the PVV leader.

The film was due to be premiered on May 1 in Los Angeles and Mr Wilders originally said he was 'honoured' to be invited. But he backtracked on Wednesday over comments allegedly made by Martin Mawyer, that gay people are sick, saying: "I don't want to be personally associated with that."

Cancelled
CAN says the screening won't go ahead as planned but Martin Mawyer says the decision isn't embarassing for the group: "We understand that in this movement to fight Jihad and radical extremism in the Muslim world, there's going to be a variety of people with different political viewpoints. Our viewpoint on homosexuality differs from Mr Wilders' and I can understand he has some objections to our biblical views on homosexuality."

Fitna was released in 2008 with great media fanfare and features scenes of violence and images of people being beheaded. It has been condemned by Muslim leaders all over the world. Mr Wilders recently said he's working on a follow-up film, but it won't be ready before June's parliamentary elections in the Netherlands.

Martin Mawyer says Fitna has had a positive reception in the US, where he is confident his film about Geert Wilders will also be a hit: "We did a pre-screening last night of Islam Rising in Oklahoma city and over 1,000 people attended it. They cheered throughout the film because the Christian churches in America are behind Mr Wilders, they support his message, and we think this is going to be huge in America."

Radio Netherlands