TWO leading Dutch politicians known for their critical views of Islam have been taken to safe houses by police after receiving death threats after the murder of the film-maker Theo van Gogh.

Mr Van Gogh, the great great grandnephew of Vincent van Gogh, was shot and stabbed in a “ritual killing” in broad daylight in an Amsterdam street on Tuesday. His throat was slit with a butcher’s knife, and a five-page letter was pinned to his chest with another knife.

The police announced that they would prosecute Mr Van Gogh’s suspected killer, a 26-year-old Dutch-born man of Moroccan origin, named Mohammed B., under antiterrorism laws, recognising the killing as the first recent terrorist attack on Dutch soil. Police have arrested eight other Islamic radicals over the killing, and have connected it with the terrorist bombing in Casablanca.

It was the second murder of a public figure critical of Islam in the Netherlands, two-years after the anti-immigration populist Pym Fortuyn was shot by a left-wing activist.

Dutch leaders who have received death threats since the murder include Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee and former Muslim who made a film with Mr Van Gogh criticising the Koran for sanctioning domestic violence; Geert Wilders, a right-wing populist opposed to Turkey joining the EU; Rita Verdonk, the Immigration Minister; and Job Cohen, Amsterdam’s mayor. Ms Hirsi Ali and Mr Wilders have both been taken to safe houses.

Dutch newspapers reported that police are worried that the threats — by telephone calls and e-mails — were evidence of a co-ordinated attempt by Islamic radicals to target politicians seen as “enemies of Islam”.

The note pinned to Mr Van Gogh’s chest, which was written in Arabic and Dutch, quoted phrases from the Koran and was addressed to Ms Hirsi Ali. It said that the Netherlands was controlled by Jews, and called for jihad or Holy War against infidels, America, Europe, the Netherlands and Ms Hirsi Ali. It said: “Islam will be victorious through the blood of martyrs. Only death will separate the truth from the lies.”

It told Ms Hirsi Ali: “Since you stepped into the political arena in the Netherlands you have been constantly busy terrorising Muslims and Islam with your remarks. With your apostasy you have turned your back on truth and you are marching with the ranks of evil.”

Piet Hein Donner, the Dutch Justice Minister, said of the letter: “It is worrying because it gives the impression that it is not the message of an individual, but a wider organisation.”

The killing has increased community tensions in the Netherlands, with 30 people arrested for inciting hatred against Muslims. An internet book of condolences for Mr Van Gogh had to be closed because it was filled with 5,000 messages of anti-Islamic abuse.

Rita Verdonk, the Dutch Immigration Minister, announced that the government would introduce a law to strip Islamic radicals with dual nationality of their Dutch passports. There are nearly a million Muslims in the Netherlands, mainly from Morocco and Turkey, and the majority maintain dual nationality. She said the law would be changed “so that when a person is suspected of planning or involvment in extremism or serious crimes we will take away their Dutch passport”. Under separate proposals, imams will be required to teach Dutch values in mosques.

Ms Verdonk said that the Netherlands had been “naive” in failing to deal with deep divisions in Dutch society. “For too long we have said we had a multicultural society. We were too naive in thinking people would exist in society together,” she said.

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