Egyptian film fest bans Danish and Dutch

Cairo -- Danish and Dutch filmmakers are barred from an international children's film festival in Egypt because artists in those countries insulted Islam, a report said.

The ban has no immediate effect on Denmark, the Copenhagen Post reported. No one from the country has participated in the festival since 2005.

Diplomats from the Netherlands are trying to negotiate terms for the country's entries in the festival to be shown.

The immediate causes of offense are Danish newspapers' decision to reprint 12 caricatures of Mohammed after three men were charged with plotting to kill one of the cartoonists in November and a Dutch film that attacks the Koran.

Fawzi Fahmi, the festival director, told Radio Netherlands that the ban is "a symbolic gesture toward all those who have insulted and degraded monotheistic religions."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.