The 16-minute film, entitled 'Fitna' - an Arabic word meaning 'strife' or 'division among people' - was posted on the U.K.-based video website Liveleak on Thursday evening. It was made by Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who had earlier announced that his film would show that the Koran is "a fascist book" that justifies murder.
"People who watch the movie will see that the Koran is very much alive today, leading to the destruction of everything we in the Western world stand for, which is respect and tolerance," Wilders earlier told Fox News.
The short film begins with an image of the notorious 2006 Danish cartoon portraying the Prophet Mohammed with an explosive device on his head. The cartoon caused riots throughout the world after demonstrators attacked Danish embassies and other buildings with perceived links to the West. More than 100 people died in the violence. There were also protests against the reprinting of the cartoon in 2008.
Both NATO and the EU had earlier expressed concern over the film, with NATO saying it feared that Dutch troops in Afghanistan would now become a target for 'revenge' attacks. The Dutch government has also raised its national terrorist warning level in response to the film's release.
There were protests in the north of Afghanistan even before the airing of the film, as hundreds of Afghans demonstrated in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday, burning Dutch flags and demanding the expulsion of Dutch troops from the country.
Public protests against the film took place on Dam Square, in Amsterdam, on March 22 as many Dutch people sought to distance themselves from the video clip.
The film follows the image of the Prophet Mohammed with an extract from the Koran that says, "Prepare for them whatever force and cavalry ye are able of gathering, to strike terror, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies, of Allah and your enemies." These words are followed by footage of the 9/11 attack and other terrorist attacks by Islamist groups.
Fitna also contains footage of radical Imams calling for the slaughter of Jews and other disbelievers as well as a Muslim holding a "God bless Hitler" placard. However, although the intention of the film was to 'discredit' Islam by showing the links between verses in the Koran and violence, many commentators have suggested that the film resembles nothing more than the clips frequently aired on radical Islamic websites.
The film also makes reference to the Dutch director, Theo van Gogh, who was murdered after making another controversial 'anti-Islam' film in 2004. However, the image Wilders uses in his film to depict Van Gogh's killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, is actually Moroccan rapper Salah El Din.
Although moderate Islamic groups have said the film is "nothing new" and made appeals for Muslims to "react calmly and within the law," the prospect of a backlash in the Islamic world remains a distinct possibility.
A Dutch court is due to hear today an injunction by the Dutch Islamic Federation over the film.
