GENEVA, April 20, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The Locarno International Film Festival organizers excluded a controversial anti-Islam film from the race for "security reasons", a move widely criticized by the Muslim minority in Switzerland for further associating Islam and Muslims with terrorism.

Irene Bignardi, the director of the festival, said the controversial film "Submission" of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh will not be screened in the festival, which will run on August 3-13 in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of Switzerland.

Bignardi cited fears of "terrorist threats" for the decision, saying the screening of the controversial film runs counter to the security precautions taken to secure participants in the festival.

The controversial film was directed by Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, known for his criticism of Islam, who was killed last November, allegedly by a Muslim extremist angered by the anti-Islam script.

The festival director stressed that a similar decision was earlier taken by the film distributor when it was pulled out from the Rotterdam film festival last January.

That the Locarno festival decided to withdraw the anti-Islam film for "security reasons" has triggered anger and condemnation among the Swiss Muslims as causing to deepen misconceptions on linking Islam and Muslims to terrorism.

MP Hassan Al-Arabi, a spokesman for the Muslim association of Ticino, told IslamOnline.net that the decision could further stereotypes on Islam as a violent religion.

Muslims in Switzerland is known for their peaceful behavior and rejection to violent ideologies, Al-Arabi stressed.

"So, Swiss Muslims reject any attempts to link the name of Islam with such fabricated issues as propaganda about threats of the Islamic dangers."

The Muslim lawmaker maintained that the Swiss government should show more respect to the sentiments of other minorities in the country in order to render the integration efforts a success.

"The film is full of misconceptions on Islam and Muslims; consequently it doesn't serve the issue of integration. Rather it only causes to tarnish the image of Islam and Muslims," he stressed.

Islam is the second religion in Switzerland after Christianity. The country is home to 330,000 Muslims representing a sizable 4.5 percent of the country’s some eight million people.

Forty-three percent of the Muslim community is of Turkish origin.

The festival's decision has also drawn mixed reactions, with some considering the decision as a submission to what they termed "Islamic terrorist threats" and others hail it as the anti-Islam script neither presents any artistic value nor tackles the issue of violence against women in an objective manner.