Dozens of angry Muslims in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi protested Friday against the release of an anti-Islamic film by a Dutch lawmaker.

Members of the hard-line Islamist party Jamaat-i-Islami organized the protest, chanting "Death to the filmmaker" and demanding that Pakistan's government sever diplomatic ties with The Netherlands.

Geert Wilders (file photo)

The film, called Fitna, was made by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders and contains images of terrorist attacks and quotations from the Koran.

The Pakistani government Friday lodged a strong protest with the Netherlands, summoning the Dutch ambassador to Pakistan to condemn what it called the "defamatory" film.

Protests have erupted in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent weeks in anticipation of the film's release and after the reprinting of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.