Fitna

I don’t know if any of you have been following the story about the Dutch director’s documentary on Islam, but it has captured my attention.

It all started when Dutch filmmaker Geert Wilder put together a 15-minute short entitled “Fitna” (an Arabic word that mean “schism, secession, upheaval and anarchy at once.”) that is extremely critical of Islam in obviously offensive terms. He goes so far as to call all of Islam a scourge and a danger to the Netherlands. The film takes verses of the Koran and combines scenes of terrorist violence, implying that Islam is an extremely dangerous and volatile religion. This, at least to me, is obviously way over the line. It is not the entire religion of Islam that is ‘out for blood’ so to speak and extremists from any religion should be dealt with. What is interesting to me about this whole story is the reaction by the public, especially the Islamic public. There has been general outcry by people all over the world. Several protests have been staged in the Netherlands. Islamic groups around the globe have condemned the film and have gone to great lengths to point to legitimate examples of much more mild Islam (although they still seem to skirt the whole female oppression issue). Even the EU has come out against the film, calling it “inflammatory.”

It took Mr. Wilder a while to find someone to host his video and he finally found a home at the British website LiveLeak.com. Here’s where things get interesting. Just yesterday LiveLeak announced that it would drop the video because its staff members were getting death threats. This is what I just don’t understand. First off the fact that these death threats were largely ignored by the media while the documentary was played up, And secondly that people who are trying to prove that their religion can be just as peaceful as the next are being undermined by radical sects who only seem to prove what Mr. Wilder said in his movie.

While I disagree with the method Wilder used to communicate his message, and I disagree with the overarching theme of Wilder, that “Islam must be defeated,” On the other hand, the fact that people are so violent as to threated death to the staff members of LiveLeak seems to shed some interesting light on the issue, sort of like those movies where, before the credits, a title comes on that says, “The End…The End?”


For more information on the film and the responses, take a look at this series of CNN articles

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/27/islam.film/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/28/islam.film/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/28/fitna.reaction/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Thanks for reading.