Explosive Dutch Koran Film Goes Online
Following months of delays and ominous warnings, a Dutch MP's graphic film critiquing the Koran is now online. Here's a first look at what all the fuss is about.
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After vehement warnings from the Islamic world, Dutch MP Geert Wilders just published his controversial film Fitna (roughly translated as “strife” or “disturbance”) about the Koran and Islam on the Internet. You can view it here in English translation.
The film begins with a warning of its own: “This contains very shocking images.”
And then the Koran appears, followed by an imam singing verses from it about fighting the infidels.
Next two planes are seen flying into the World Trade Center in New York City. After that we see buildings burning and hear a telephone conversation between a woman trapped inside the WTC and a 911 operator. The woman is panicking and fears she’s going to die. “It’s so hot, I’m burning up,” she says.
Next, another terrorist attack, quickly followed by leading terrorists and extremists telling fellow Muslims that Islam, that Allah, requires of them to fight “infidels.” After that come images of severely tarnished bodies, all victims of terrorism.
Fitna then returns to the Koran, again quoting violent passages, again followed by images of a fundamentalist Muslim imam telling believers that God will give them strength to kill unbelievers.
The movie continues in the same vein; Wilders then focuses on Muslims living in the West. In Western Europe, we have an integration problem, and Wilders believes that this problem is — also mainly — caused by the fact that those immigrants are Muslims.
Wilders’ message is clear: his argument is not that extremists distort what the Koran says and what Islam teaches; the problem, as he presents it, is that Islam is inherently violent. Islam, Wilders argues in Fitna, is a religion of terror and intolerance.
In the MP’s vision, Western democracy and freedom on the one hand and Islam on the other are polar opposites. Islam teaches that Western society has to be destroyed and/or subdued. Westerners are, therefore, in a battle for our lives; fighting for the survival of civilization.
Not unexpectedly, a Muslim group has already taken action against the film.
The moment the right-wing politician announced he would produce this movie, Muslims in the Netherlands sounded alarm bells. Other more fundamentalist Muslims in the Arab world were less cryptic; they said that if it were released, they would riot.
The grand mufti of Syria had warned that Wilders alone would be responsible for possible bloodshed if he went on to produce the movie and put it online.
The Dutch government put heavy pressure on the MP, telling him he should not produce the movie, that Dutch people living in Muslim countries would would be in danger because of his “obsession.” Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende tried to convince Muslim governments he too didn’t want Wilders to produce Fitna, insisting he disagreed with Wilders on just about everything. He even said Wilders’ movie “threatens the nation.”
As the film hit the Internet today, Dutch news channel RTL Nieuws reported their government met with ambassadors of Muslim nations in an attempt to explain that Wilders stood alone; that it may be his right to produce this movie, but that they and the majority of the Dutch people don’t agree with his views on Islam.
Dutch networks had previously refused to air Fitna. Wilders had approached several channels, but they all turned him down. The exception was the Dutch Muslim Channel, which agreed to air his movie, as long as they were allowed to watch Fitna before airing it. Wilders didn’t consider that a fair demand, and told them that he’d publish his movie on the Internet instead.
Then the American owner of the domain fitnathemovie.com decided to shut the site down, saying that he had received numerous complaints that the website would be used for hate speech.
Wilders, however, finally found a site willing to host his film. Shortly after 7 p.m. Dutch time on Wednesday, Fitna went online.
There has been talk of little else on Dutch television ever since. The biggest network, RTL 4, already devoted an entire program on Fitna and is planning a follow-up.
They ask the questions: Will Fitna arouse the anger of Muslims in the Netherlands? Will some start rioting? And how about Muslim countries? Should Dutch people living in Muslim countries fear for their lives? Will Dutch embassies be attacked and possibly burned down?
Nobody knows that yet.
At this moment, a Muslim group has already taken action. “A Dutch judge is due on Friday to hear the petition of a Muslim group seeking an independent review of an anti-Koran film by lawmaker Geert Wilders to see whether it violates hate speech laws.”
In the petition the group says that “the situation of Muslims in the Netherlands is comparable with that of our Jewish fellow-citizens in the 1930s.”
Michael van der Galien is the founder and editor-in-chief of PoliGazette and Chief Political Reviewer at Monsters and Critics. He can be contacted at mpfvandergalien@gmail.com
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48 Comments
P. Ami:If Jews in the Netherlands had their own country to go to, if they had been rioting and threatening violence with every critique of the Jewish way of life, if Jews were murdering artists because of their message and if Jews had, in its core classical books, the call to convert gentiles or subject them to punishment and/or death, then one could compare the European Jews of the 1930’s to Muslims living in Europe today. As that was not the case the petition put forth by the Dutch Islamic Federation is deeply flawed. The film only repeats to the Dutch what it is the Koran and Muslims say in bits and pieces every day.
Mar 27, 2008 - 5:47 pm Morton Doodslag:I hope that western media will cover this fairly, and without resorting to using the rhetoric and propaganda of our Islamic enemies. There is really nothing which should be considered “controversial”, for example, about Wilder’s “Fitna”. He simply quotes passages from the Koran, shows Muslim scolars, Imams, and Muslim leaders from across the globe repeating these violent hatred filled passages, shows them exhorting their followers to murder and destroy, and then shows the predictable consequences. These include, but are hardly limited to 9/11, 7/7, Madrid, beheadings, etc.
The “controversy”, if there is any, should be properly affixed to the violence which is replete in the Koran, to the violence terrorism and mass murder which Muslims enact on behalf of Islam, or to the fact that so many Muslims and Western abettors still continue to deny the obvious connections between the hatred displayed by Muslims and the hatred within their hideous Koran. The film is in no way “controversial”, unless the truth is now somehow controversial.
Mar 27, 2008 - 6:30 pm Tom W.:Islamist response: “If you accuse us of being violent, we’ll murder you!”
Well done, Mr. Wilders. I hope Europe listens.
Mar 27, 2008 - 6:55 pm Ibn Hidin:Behead those who watch films about Islam!
Mar 27, 2008 - 7:15 pm ex-democrat:the only thing controversial about the film is that there is a controversy about “whether it should be shown.”
Mar 27, 2008 - 7:28 pm Willys:Thanks to Geert Wilders, Scarlet Pimpernel and LiveLeaks.
This film fits well with the movie ‘Obsession’, Radical Islam’s War Against the West.
http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/
Mar 27, 2008 - 7:52 pm Anonymous:Why are they not threatening the imams who preach this stuff?
Mar 27, 2008 - 8:41 pm Professor Guvinof:The movie is often characterized as “controversial” only because it touches a topic everybody is afraid to talk about, the violent nature of Islam. It’s in the books, in black and white, for all of us to see!
The quasi-totality of acts of terrorisms are perpetrated by Muslims. This is hardly a subtlety which only the experts can appreciate. It better come out in the open. It will even help the Muslims in the long run!
The agitators do not need any provocation. How much longer are we going to fall for their “justifications”?
Mar 27, 2008 - 8:58 pm Hyram Haram:Not much in the movie which we Islamophobes haven’t seen already. However, 2.5 million views in first few hours. Top all-time Youtube vid is 80 million. Could this be a new record?
Mar 27, 2008 - 9:58 pm KevinQC:Listen to what the Muslim’s themselves tell us: “Take lessons from the examples you can see!” Every Western blogger, Liberal, Libertarian, Republican, Conservative, everyone! should post this video.
Mar 28, 2008 - 12:08 am G Granai:This film does little more than tell it like it is.
Network Solutions should be sorely criticised for taking down the original website.
Mar 28, 2008 - 1:22 am Ed Wallis:G Granai: This film does little more than tell it like it is./I>
Sometimes that’s all it takes to change the world.
Mar 28, 2008 - 2:00 am Eric Dondero:The left wing of the Libertarian movement, who oppose the War on Islamo-Fascism, people like Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell, AntiWar.com ect… need to be exposed to this film. They claim that the War on Al Qaeda is a farce. We rightwing libertarians have been battling them over this for years.
Please, if you know a libertarian, particularly a left-leaning Libertarian Party person, tell them to watch the video. Invite them to visit Pajama’s Media on a daily basis.
Thanks
Mar 28, 2008 - 3:22 am Mr Ed:By their words and their deeds shall you know them.
I think any vice cop would recognize the enforcement thugs of Is-Lame’s “radicals”. Just like the mob which has their “respectable” face which they present openly to the world while the enforcer thugs do their dirty work in the dark, so Is-Lame has their “respectable” face which tries to present their primitive, murderous anti-western agenda as religion, and does it under the protection of the very western concept of freedom of religion that Is-Lame is working so hard to destroy. And we see the same modus operandi for Is-Lame in every country where they have sufficient numbers: The radical arm of Islamic thuggery, intimidation, murder and general terrorism operate hand-in-hand with the supposedly more modern thinking and westernized public faces of the same criminal organization to foist Is-Lamic control in every way possible.
More offensive to me (and I believe the majority of the citizens of the western democracies) is the feckless, venal capitulation of so many so-called “leaders” in those western democracies who are only interested in keeping this social cauldron from coming to a boil while they (in their minds anyway) wisely rule over us squabbling peons. They are the sort of venal Liberal politicians and media hacks that see their most important duty as being the protection of selected “victim groups”, who in this case are actually criminals working dilligently to destroy and supplant western ideals and freedoms with the primitive notion of the Is-Lamic death cult.
So, what exactly is Geert Wilders crime? The crime of excersicing free speech. No matter how the Liberal apologists try to dress it up as something else, that is the core of it.
In these times nothing is more despised - and dangerous - than speaking the truth. Exposing preacher Wright’s racist and anti American screeds? You have no right to do so because, in the Liberalism drenched media, victimhood trumps all. Speaking the truth, or as in this short film letting the Is-Lamists speak for themselves, is presented by the Libs as an act of hate.
And for those of you who wonder if this will end peacefully, go ask Theo Van Gogh.
Mar 28, 2008 - 8:06 am Fat Jolly Penguin:Tracking the progress of the video yesterday made it quite evident to me that no amount of violence from the Muslims is going to make it go away. LiveLeak.com had over 700,000 views in a very short period of time, torrents were made available almost instantly, and it even wriggled through YouTube’s system (not sure for how long though). If Islam is so thin-skinned that it can’t take a bit of criticism, even from a little 15-minute video, then I say we toughen it up a bit — by criticizing it even more where it’s due.
Mar 28, 2008 - 8:27 am Spinoneone:Mr. Ed is correct - go ask Theo Van Gogh. Our lily livered left wing liberals, especially the so called “elite” among them, are so blinded by PC and “multiculturalism” that they couldn’t see a rock if they tripped over it. That is the very same rock the Islamist will pick-up and use to kill them.
I can’t wait to see the slobbering, snivilling Lou Dobbs or Wolf Blitzer whining and crying over this one, lamenting the fact that now the Islamists will just have a jolly excuse to kill Wilders, et al. We, of course, are the “et al” but Blitzer and Dobbs are too much boobs to understand that.
Mar 28, 2008 - 9:41 am Joseph:Why Muslims would get upset about this is interesting. Isn’t it just putting on display what many of their leaders have been espousing forever? They should see this as free publicity for their “righteous” views.
Mar 28, 2008 - 9:51 am Tony:Facts are facts. The film didn’t use stunts and there were no actors involved.
What muslims think of the film is irrelevant. It’s the “progressive” liberal morons in Europe and the US that need to understand what appears in this film to snap them out of their fluffy idealistic multicultural fantasies.
Mar 28, 2008 - 10:19 am Sanne:Wilders is crazy. And yes, I’m Dutch. He’s stupid to turn his life upside down and have many bodyguards just because of his opinion. BUT.. he said he hasn’t problems with ISLAM, but with the KORAN. He thinks he can show how terrible the Koran is, but I think it’s the wrong way to show it. I hope Muslims in Arabic countries will understand that it’s just a stupid ‘movie’ (I don’t call it a movie, it’s too silly for that), and not the whole country hates the Koran. Geert Wilders has to shut his mouth, he said too much already. Muslims, just go on with your life, and ignore this guy.
Why can’t people just live in peace? I still don’t understand it. I hope.. one day.. oh.. *sigh*
Mar 28, 2008 - 12:49 pm Rob:LiveLeak has taken down the film due to threats against their lives.
Mar 28, 2008 - 2:09 pm Redball6:Say the Dutch finally woke up. Wowsers!
Mar 28, 2008 - 2:48 pm Jabba the Tutt:I hope that Muslim group brings Geert Wilders up on hate speech charges. I watched Fitna, it is almost totally quotes from the Koran, videos of Imams speaking on how Allah wants Muslims to kill the infidel and videos of Muslim violence. Hmmmm, in all that mix, proving that it’s hate speech, proves Wilders’ point that the Koran IS hate speech.
Mar 28, 2008 - 3:34 pm van Kook:We Dutch beg and plead with muslims not to keel us, please!!! We are so veery sorry about Wilders and hope they won’t hold his stubborn intransigence ageenst us. Oh, spare us, pleeese!
Mar 28, 2008 - 5:54 pm Tchiock Pok:Those of us who have read various interpretations of the Qur’an (Koran)including the sanitized versions for Western reading planted in our libraries by the Saudis, and those of us who have not read any of the Qur’an but hear of controversaries, want to hear the truth. Most Muslims would also like to hear the truth but fear reprisal by those crazies who fear anyone hearing the truth. Truth is simply what we want! Why can’t we all have that??????
Mar 28, 2008 - 7:30 pm Waqas:Freedom of speech?? why don’t the European countries imply this SO CALLED freedom of speech on blanket ban on Holocaust denial??
Mar 28, 2008 - 11:14 pm RE:There is nothing new in the video for anyone who has been following terrorism. Actually, it’s rather mild given what it could have been and still remain factual. The true value of this video is in highlighting the insanity of political correctness and the evil nature of those trying to enforce it. This is a good exercise in freedom of speech. Islam has been a problem to freedom loving people for 1400 years. It’s time for lefties to snap out of their self-induced coma. There has always been evil in the world. there always will be. Wishing it away, won’t make it so.
It is very clear to me. If the muslims don’t like our calling them out on their own behavior, perhaps they should stop killing people and calling for world domination.
Mar 29, 2008 - 4:22 am albert Kanda:Islamic reaction proves that the point Wilder made in the film is accurate. Their rection is a solid proof. Muslims need to look at the family and take each accusation and prove him wrong. They also need to look at themselves, their Book, the Hdith and at their scholars critically. Self examintation is for those are have nothing to hide. It is for the mature.
Mar 29, 2008 - 7:11 am Lombard:Muslims, “I can’t hear what you are saying, your actions are too loud.”
God bless Geert Wilders.
The best way to unveil the muslim threat is to use their own words and actions against them.
Mar 29, 2008 - 2:07 pm ddc:Cheers to Geert Wilders for “Fitna” and Ayaan Hirsi Ali for “Submission” for which Theo Van Gogh was slaughtered.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7106648073888697427
More people are needed to speak the real truth about Islam, not some faux-intellectual apologist’s truth who STILL lives in the fantasy world of Islam being the “Religion of Peace.” Unbelievable.
The “religion of peace” was quite a cleverly coined (pushed) phrase by islamic scholars with an agenda. The joke is on the usefull idiots (Bush included) who fell for the double-speak from under the turban. The “peace” pertains ONLY to those who follow and submit, and in that narrow sense it IS a religion of peace. What they never admit to is that Islam exists in, and, as a “culture who worships death” for ALL of those of whom DO NOT…follow and submit.
Mar 29, 2008 - 4:47 pm Noorullah:Islam is one of the most peacefull religion in all around the world. Musleh never allowed people to attack on thier religion, if someone do this so all muslim should start war(Jahad) with this. I am a muslim student and this is my massage to muslims of all around the world that start jahad with halend country….
Mar 30, 2008 - 2:04 am Jeb:What Muslim reaction to this video?
Mar 30, 2008 - 7:22 am Waqas:to albert Kanda:
Mar 30, 2008 - 7:42 am Nomo:Wow!! Its your bible which is pursuing bush to invade Iraq, its your books which are asking jews to kill every n each Muslim in Palestine and surrounding countries. Quran just says to defend your rights.. If mujahids fighting in Iraq are terrorists than I am sorry to say that the US freedom fighters were also terrorists.
We defend our land and ask for our rights, we are terrorists and western nations killing hundreds of people everyday are peace lovers!!
Killer cult.
Mar 30, 2008 - 8:31 am you reap what you sow:Fitna has been removed from the link Lars gave earlier, it is now available over the Russian server:
http://searchlight-germany.blogspot.com/2008/03/fitna-asylum-in-russia.html
Serbs have been exposed to this for centuries, but all West knows, especially Holland, is to cry over Srebrenica and foam over General Mladic.
They should love and cherish their poor Muslim “refugees”, and have compassion for them even when the Western heads are flying off the mujahedin sabers. Otherwise, we might get an impression they think this treatment is OK for Serbs and Russians, but not for any West Europeans or Americans.
Mar 30, 2008 - 9:51 am saboutime:The guy who wrote “He’s stupid to turn his life upside down and have many bodyguards just because of his opinion” is a citizen of the EU for sure.
Mar 30, 2008 - 10:53 am molon labe:Sanna,
“Why can’t people just live in peace? I still don’t understand it. I hope.. one day.. oh.. *sigh*”
Yes - why CAN’T the Islamicists whose own words were accurately captured live in peace without spewing hatred at Jews and Christians and gays?
Why CAN’T the Muslim world disown the violence and hatred it has engendered - and which has cost many many innocent lives already.
Why CAN’T Muslims say openly that in coming to the West they are willing to live within the culture and freedoms of the West without trying to undermine them or subjugate them to Shari’a.
If you think the problem is that Wilders has created this video, you are very very ignorant of what is going on in the world.
Mar 30, 2008 - 12:36 pm infidel:Dutch dhimmis acknowledge their places under Islamic rule by apologizing for offending Muslims.
A Dutch activist group has called for a mass online apology campaign to “smother out” the soon-to-be-released anti-Islamic movie by a right wing politician.
Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders says he plans to broadcast his film “Fitna” — Challenge in Arabic – on the web sometime in the next two weeks. The 15-minute movie denounces the Quran as a “fascist” book.
On Monday, Amsterdam-based cultural organization Mediamatic called on Dutch citizens “to make their own version of Fitna in which they apologize for Wilders’ embarrassing behavior”.
http://www.alarabiya.net - Dutch say ’sorry’ for anti-Islam film
Stick a fork in them. They’re done.
Mar 30, 2008 - 1:57 pm ryan woods:It serves you all right in the west, especially EU countries, after all it’s this countries wrong-headed policies that are supporting radical ISLAM in Balkans for years, with no end insight. In an incredibly PC effort to appear unbiased, Western nations are supporting Kosovo independence - that means another Islamic state.It’s sickening to think that America advanced Islamic Jihadists in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. All this will be lost on Westerners that are deceived by the Islamic strategy of taqiyya (concealment of malevolent intentions to advance Islam).So why act all of sudden shocked with this Dutch movie?
A modern Islamic Caliphate is forming in southern Europe. For those of you with an eye on the current events of IslamoFascism, you have already witnessed the path of destruction and reconstruction of an Islamic state.
We’ve witnessed an Infidel uprising defending freedom, democracy, and liberty. We’ve applauded - even cheered - as a politically correct Clinton Administration extinguished that Islamophobic rebellion. We’ve encouraged and comforted Islamic Jihadis as they recovered from the rebellion, regained their strengths, and now threaten to dominate those who dared to fight back.
So, why is this a gift?
Because what we are currently witnessing in Serbia is a small scale model of what Islamists want on a world-wide level. We have the benefit, now, of hindsight. We know, by following the events in Serbia, radical Islam will not be deterred. As long as it has breath, it will fight to destroy us. It will use our compassion, our kindness, and our sense of justice against us. It will play the victim card until it controls the political power to defeat us.
Another Clinton Administration looms on our horizon. But next time, it won’t be a small regional Islamic conflict the administration must address. It will be a world-wide Islamic threat. If the new Clinton Administration reacts to the threat as the former Clinton Administration did, we will witness an Islamic uprising on scale never before seen - and most likely on American soil.
Embrace this gift. Learn from it. If we don’t, we are doomed to repeat it.
Mar 30, 2008 - 2:11 pm natali:Agreed. Slavs ( Christians from Eastern Europe) have been fighting Muslims for centuries, be they Tatars, Turks or Albanians. Yet London and Washington are determined that Turkey, a long-standing enemy of Europe, be admitted into the European Union, and support Albanians over Serbs and Macedonians. Incredulously, while African, West Asian and South Asian Muslims run riot in England’s cities, the only immigrants that the BBC rails against are the Poles - skilled workers that have contributed to the British economy and are now returning back home!
Dutch are of course western Europeans. We have to remember (if you can as far as 1989) that Europe consists of two main groups: Western and Eastern. Wester Europeans are a softy liberal compared to us in the East. I think they will together with Brits will speak Arabic several hundreds of years before Eastern Europeans do
You know what’s the big difference between those too? Western Europeans together with USA led government recognized a bunch of sunni Muslim savages that live in Kosovo as a nation. At the same time NATO is supplying them with weapons and the Saudis are building them mosques. So much for the Christian Europe. Isn’t this the pure definition of hypocrisy ?
Mar 30, 2008 - 3:16 pm ruth:I have to cut this reply short so I can go to the bathroom and throw up.
If the muslims werent of such little faith they could take critism of the koran and mohammed..Even Hitler would not have behaved in such a barbaric manner if the world exposed the lies of mein kamph.
Mar 30, 2008 - 5:28 pm Aslam:As for the world caving in to the demands and threats of muslims the only answer is that every news media in the world air cartoons of mohamed and films exposing the lies of koran continuously…. They cant kill us all..If we remain silent about evil islam god will hold us equally responsible …If we cave in to their threats …What do you think the outcome will be?????
The are trying to silence the truth because islam is being made naked with the truth.. they are unable to hide behind their lies. Their next step will be a ‘peace treaty’ with Christians and an attempt to silence them via U.N. law against the defamation of religions, etc..Obama plans to force this law on USA.. It will spell the end of free speech and the beginning of persecutions of Christans and Jews in USA…better take a stand now..
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
God Bless U All, And u All r Wrong u Didnt have a Single Knw abt islaam and Even ur Religions too. Islaam never teach a Racism And Terrrorism. Adn im Totally agaisnt Geert Wilders. ANd u All people Must have to read 1st Quran and his Meaning, then u poeple Come to knw that Wht a beautiful things reveal inthis Last Revolution Quran. Hope u all Read it and understand it. And Sure ill pray foru all and All human Beings For Hidayat.
Mar 31, 2008 - 11:16 pm Ed Wallis:Aslam,
Please go to school, learn to write, and THEN feel free to come back and espouse your ostensibly profound thoughts about a “2.7%” religion (”only” 164 verses out of 6000 verses speak of violence in the Koran…that’s 164 divided by 6000 = 2.7%…).
…but it only takes one nasty little bomb to ruin your morning coffee….
And, if it’s “only” 1% of muslims worldwide who are violent, well, at 1.3 billion, that’s “only” somewhat less than 13,000,000 violently crazed fools creating havoc in the name of the Koran….
NO SALE.
Apr 1, 2008 - 12:48 pm