Dutch businesses Saturday threatened to sue far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders if his anti-Islam film led to a commercial boycott, as several more Muslim countries condemned it.
(Advertisement)

"I don't know if Wilders is rich, or well-insured, but in the case of a boycott, we would look to see if we could make him bear responsibility," Bernard Wientjes, chairman of the Dutch employers' organisation VNO-NCW, told the newspaper Het Financieel Dagblad.

"A boycott would hurt Dutch exports. Businesses such as Shell, Philips and Unilever are easily identifiable as Dutch companies," he was quoted as saying.

just how would any given Dutch business be able to prove that it was commerically impacted by same ? would say orders cancelled by islamic customers suffice ? or would they specifically require correspondance from customers stating that they would not order from a dutch business because another dutch person had (in thier eyes) defamed islam ?

Originally Posted by Mujaahid

Dutch businesses Saturday threatened to sue far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders if his anti-Islam film led to a commercial boycott, as several more Muslim countries condemned it.
(Advertisement)

"I don't know if Wilders is rich, or well-insured, but in the case of a boycott, we would look to see if we could make him bear responsibility," Bernard Wientjes, chairman of the Dutch employers' organisation VNO-NCW, told the newspaper Het Financieel Dagblad.

"A boycott would hurt Dutch exports. Businesses such as Shell, Philips and Unilever are easily identifiable as Dutch companies," he was quoted as saying.

What the hell is with the spamming of this website with Islamic propaganda? Isn't there an islam.com website you can go to?

Maybe you should go to:

www.thereligionofpeace.com/

Oops that seems offline probably because of DDoS attacks from Islamofascist e-jihadists. Try a cached version:

Even if they could prove that Wilders was responsible it would make no difference. The notion that someone could be censored because what he said caused others to blackmail business is ridiculous

"Arla Foods says a boycott on its dairy products in the Middle East will cost it at least €53m this year, as the firm tries to remain positive about the long road to recovery." All the stores in Saudi and across the Middle East boycotted Dutch products because of the cartoon debacle. As the boycott began to bite, companies like Arla distanced themselves from the cartoons and the boycott on their products was lifted. Having learned a lesson from that episode, Dutch companies are not willing to suffer loss on the account of an avowed bigot. They will endeavor to teach Wilders that with freedom comes responsibility, and I wish them every success.

Originally Posted by garlandgreen

Even if they could prove that Wilders was responsible it would make no difference. The notion that someone could be censored because what he said caused others to blackmail business is ridiculous

Regardless of how you feel - Arab states have used a legitimate tool to effect a change. You should be pleased

Originally Posted by Mujaahid

"Arla Foods says a boycott on its dairy products in the Middle East will cost it at least €53m this year, as the firm tries to remain positive about the long road to recovery." All the stores in Saudi and across the Middle East boycotted Dutch products because of the cartoon debacle. As the boycott began to bite, companies like Arla distanced themselves from the cartoons and the boycott on their products was lifted. Having learned a lesson from that episode, Dutch companies are not willing to suffer loss on the account of an avowed bigot. They will endeavor to teach Wilders that with freedom comes responsibility, and I wish them every success.

am pretty sure that it was Danish good that were boycotted, not Dutch in relation to the cartoon, regardless was the cartoonist or the original posting newspaper sued because of this lose of business in the middle east ?

knee jerk reactions like this are stupid and achieve nothing, just like the US where some changed the name of french fries to freedom fries and boycotted French wine / produce when Chirac and the French government did not play along with the US on the iraq war.......

Originally Posted by Mujaahid

Originally Posted by garlandgreen

Even if they could prove that Wilders was responsible it would make no difference. The notion that someone could be censored because what he said caused others to blackmail business is ridiculous

Regardless of how you feel - Arab states have used a legitimate tool to effect a change. You should be pleased

I'm very pleased. I doubt they've changed anything. They tried this with Denmark and it got them nowhere

Even the advertisement banners are depicting burqa-clad muslim women advertising a dating website called muslima.com! aaarghhhhh

commerical priorities impacting 'freedom of speech' never