Geert Wilders - Fitna

[mallamt]

I just have watched this documentarty and was wondering if anyone has watched it and what you thought.  There has been quite a number of very interesting comments made by muslims around the world and i believe it is very important for true muslims to watch.  Obviously the maker of the film appear to be delusional and out of his mind for some of his thoughts and reasoning, because i believe from what he is trying to say about muslims and islam he is also guilty of the same thing.  However, i also think that he has raised some issues all bordering on the image fanatics are giving the religion, my believe is that the movie is based on that section of muslims and not the other true muslims who are actually in majority, that live in peace and harmony with other peoples

[EMTL]

Assalamu alaikum,
I didnt this dirty movie but i read an article in the Arabnews:
Wilders Film Aims to Block Dialogue: WAMY
M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Arab News
 
RIYADH, 31 March 2008 — The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) has denounced Thursday's screening of an anti-Qur'an film by a rightwing MP in the Netherlands and called on international bodies to prevent people from insulting religions.

"These kinds of attacks by so-called sane European politicians and scholars will lead to very serious repercussions, pushing mankind to a situation of chaos and conflict," said Dr. Saleh S. Al-Wohaibi, secretary-general of WAMY.

"WAMY will hold talks with Nicolaas Beets, Dutch ambassador, and drawing his government's attention to this sensitive issue," he added.

Anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders posted the 15-minute film, entitled "Fitna," Arabic for strife, on the Internet, attracting strong condemnations from across the Islamic world. The film follows the republishing of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Danish newspapers.

"It is a new fitna, a new obstacle to block any sensible dialogue between religions. It is high time that the West moves quickly to control the damage. They don't understand how much Muslims love and respect their Prophet (pbuh)," said Al-Wohaibi.

"If we do something against Christianity or target Christian interests in retaliation, the Netherlands, Europe and the whole world would object. But Islam does not teach that, it advocates peace and co-existence," said Al-Wohaibi.

"I am afraid that the Western world has failed to understand the severity of the problem," he said, adding that people, such as Wilders, are trying to create conflict. He added that Wilders is being provocative with no knowledge of religions and human values, and that his antics have created problems for the Dutch government.

Speaking about whether dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews would help reconcile differences, Al-Wohaibi said, "I have my own reservations. Muslims are serious but the other parties are not. They are not committed. They want to hold dialogue, just for the sake of it and for Muslims' consumption."

Last week, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah announced plans to hold a conference of all major religions — a project that had been previously discussed with Pope Benedict XVI.

Meanwhile, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has again condemned the Dutch film, saying it aims to discriminate against Muslims and stir enmity against them. "The film is being screened despite opposition from the international community and the Dutch government," the OIC said in a statement. It also renewed its demand that the UN must enact a code of ethics to prohibit such provocative moves.

[bamalli]

So Geert Wilder's video Fitna has finally been released onto the internet. And what a reaction there has been.

Network Solutions pulled the site that was supposed to be hosting the film. Techcrunch is worried that Google might experience a "Muslim backlash". Live Leak, who originally hosted the film, have now pulled it down because of "credible threats". The Singaporean government has condemned it. The UAE government has condemned it. The Council of Europe has spoken out against it. Afghanistan has expressed concern. Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir has said Malay Muslims are annoyed by it and is calling for a worldwide boycott of Dutch products. Indonesia has condemned it. The OIC naturally condemns it too.

That's a lot of government and official condemnation for a 17 minute film on Youtube. However, rather than the riots and rivers of blood that the pre-release marketing led us to believe would be the natural consequence of Wilders' little film, the response from actual Muslims has been, well, not much of a response at all.

As far as such things go, Wilder's film is quite a weak effort. It's unlikely to provoke anyone to anything except, perhaps, fall asleep or yawn. Wilders has simply taken various photos and videos of Muslims doing or saying bad or outrageous things (that already exist on the internet at places like MEMRI anyway), thrown in some headlines from Dutch papers, some verses from the Qu'ran, some statistics on Muslim immigration and population growth, and finally added some spooky-sounding music to give, I suppose, gravitas to the whole thing.

The thing that strikes me more than its offensiveness is its lack of originality. Wilders, apparently unable to come up with a suitably offensive shtick of his own, attempts to ride on the coattails of the Danish cartoons; appropriating one of their cartoons — without permission — and using that to start and close his video. He's now being sued for that. He used footage from an interview with Theo van Gogh without permission. And the owner of that footage is considering legal action too. Where he was original — perhaps too original — was in using the photo of a Dutch-Moroccan rapper instead of a terrorist. He's now being threatened with legal action for that. Fitna is proving to be more of a fitna for Mr Wilders than for anyone else.

And, as for the content, then, of course, Muslims have done some terrible things in the past and the threat of terrorism is very real and must be confronted by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. However, Wilders' message isn't directed at that minority of Muslims who carry out or threaten terrorist attacks but at all Muslims: he views all Muslims as being the "problem". By doing so, he is intentionally seeking to smear the vast majority of Muslims who find terrorism and violence every bit as abhorrent as the average European non-Muslim; and have, contrary to what some people like to allege, been condemning terrorism every time it has occurred. This is completely counter-productive.

In his comments on Andrew Bolt's blog, Shibli Zaman makes this point very eloquently and points out the fact that, despite having a large number of Muslims, the United States does not have any issues whatsoever with its domestic Muslim population; which suggests that whatever challenges Europe may face are not the result of the religiousness of their Muslim population but other factors (most notably the welfare state and rigid labour market policies that keep new entrants excluded and therefore alienated). Interestingly, although some of these European "liberals" are very happy demanding that Muslims liberalise their social attitudes, they rarely seem interested in economic liberalisation and making the necessary adjustments that would have a far more appreciable effect than heckling and complaining.

Wilders is not immune to this curious hypocrisy. On the one hand, he and his supporters have rejected the wrongheaded calls for Fitna to be banned; arguing, quite rightly, that freedom of speech and expression must be protected (even if that speech offends some members of society). And yet, on the other hand, a key component of Wilder's "final solution" to the European Muslim question, is to ban the Qu'ran because he doesn't like its content.

by Musa abu A'isha

[bamalli]

Dutch protest against Islam film

ref: http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/europe/ 7309838.stm

At least 1,000 people have taken part in a demonstration in Amsterdam
against the planned release of a film expected to be highly critical of
Islam.

Protesters objected to the planned internet release of the film by Dutch
right-wing politician Geert Wilders.

Mr Wilders says the 15-minute film deals with Islamic ideology which he
describes as "the enemy of freedom".

The planned release, expected before the end of this month, has sparked
angry responses in the Muslim world.

Some protesters in central Amsterdam carried signs that said "Stop the witch
hunt against Muslims".

"We can no longer remain silent. There is a climate of hate and fear in the
Netherlands, " said Rene Danen, a spokesman from anti-racism organisation
Nederland Bekent Kleur (The Netherlands Shows its Colours), which organised
the protest.

The Dutch government has disassociated itself from Mr Wilders' views, but
there are fears the film will spark protests similar to those that followed
the publication in Denmark two years ago of cartoons seen as offensive to
Muslims.

The film has already been condemned by several Muslim countries, including
Iran and Pakistan.

'Fight for freedom'

Mr Wilders' film is entitled Fitna, an Arabic word used to describe strife
or discord, usually religious.

Mr Wilders wrote a commentary in a Dutch newspaper on Saturday.

"The film is not so much about Muslims as about the Koran and Islam. The
Islamic ideology has as its utmost goal the destruction of what is most dear
to us, our freedom," he wrote in De Volkskrant.

"Fitna is the last warning for the West. The fight for freedom has only just
begun," he said.

Mr Wilders says he plans to release his film on the internet before the end
of the month.

He has had police protection since Dutch director Theo van Gogh was killed
by a radical Islamist in 2004.