AMSTERDAM, March 28: The Netherlands breathed a sigh of relief on Friday after Dutch Muslims reacted with restraint to the release of a film by a Dutch lawmaker that accuses the Koran of inciting violence.

Dutch authorities reported a calm night after Islam critic Geert Wilders launched his movie on Thursday evening, in contrast to unrest that swept the country following the murder by an Islamic militant in 2004 of film director Theo van Gogh.

The Dutch government worked for months before the film appeared to defuse Muslim anger over its theme. In a statement broadcast live on television on Thursday in both Dutch and English, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he rejected Wilders’ views.

“The government is heartened by the initial restrained reactions of Dutch Muslim organisations,” he said. “The Dutch government stands for a society in which freedom and respect go hand in hand. Let us solve problems by working together.”

Muslim groups have appealed for calm and mosques threw open their doors to the public on Friday to defuse tension. “Relief over a ‘mild’ Fitna,” De Volkskrant newspaper said on its front page. “Neatly told but no incitement to hate,” read the headline in the mass-circulation De Telegraaf, which said legal experts did not think Wilders had committed blasphemy.

Titled Fitna, a Koranic term sometimes translated as “strife”, the film intersperses images of the September 11, 2001, attacks and other bombings with quotations from the Koran. It starts and finishes with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb under his turban, originally published in Danish newspapers, accompanied by the sound of ticking.

The image ignited violent protests around the world and a boycott of Danish products in 2006. Many Muslims consider any depiction of the Prophet as offensive.

Last month, Danish newspapers sparked more anger when they reprinted the image in solidarity with the cartoonist after three men were arrested on suspicion of plans to kill him.

Before the film’s release, demonstrators had already taken to the streets from Afghanistan to Indonesia to burn Dutch and Danish flags, and the governments of Pakistan and Iran sharply criticised Wilders’ project.

NATO has expressed concern the film could worsen security for foreign forces in Afghanistan, including 1,650 Dutch troops.

The film warns that the rising number of Muslims in Europe threatens democratic values. It urges Muslims to tear out “hate-filled” verses from the Koran.

After the caption “The Netherlands in the future?” the film shows images of gay men being executed, children with bloody faces, a woman being stoned and genital mutilation.

The Netherlands is home to almost 1 million Muslims out of a population of 16 million.