Dutch shockpol Geert Wilders has a new plan to disseminate his ideas about the Islam and Muslims in general. The film 'Fitna' taken from an Arabic word that can be translated as anarchy, or a test of faith, is definitely coming out this month, despite rather mild protests in the Arabic world and expertly managed fear-mongering by Christian coalition part CDA.
Wilders is a catholic politician who left major liberal party VVD in 2004 to form his own party, with a program apparently taken directly from the last three decades of Republican presidents in the United States, featuring such gems as smaller government, lower taxes and freedom of the individual, prompting political commentators to label his program as 'Reagonomics for Holland'.
The other main strand of his strategy is picking up the racist voting bloc that was disappointed with the failures of Pim Fortuyn's party after his death, and managing to get more death threats than Ayaan Hirsi Ali, after the death of Theo van Gogh, necessitating similar round the clock protection. Now he wants to make a film as well, reaching even more audiences with an outwardly reasonable argument that's going to be correctly assessed by the intended audiences, i.e. moderate muslims and non-muslims as having a vaguely objectionable subtext.
Because that's the main problem with Wilders' arguments against Muslims, he never continues along the same lines to pronounce the same verdict on other religious leanings. Of course the long standing suspicion that he is an Israeli agent might have something to do with this, or his catholic upbringing.
The Christian democratic party CDA has done everything in their power to make the release of the film a disaster. Wilders merely announced that he was making a film, then asked everyone, especially Dutch Muslims, to please remain calm. It's thanks to the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs that Islamic protesters managed to burn a Dutch flag along with a Danish one. Thanks should also go to the left-liberal establishment and their various misinformed celebrities for organising a great deal of useless demonstrations. How come none of these bastards are willing to protest the parties actually in power at this time, but are always available to kick an opposition party when it's down?
Now his American provider has kicked him off their server under some vague 'objectionable content' regulation and Dutch bloggers Youtubers have slapped together a series of films where they're apologising for him. I don't agree with Wilders' politics, I think he's at best a demagogue, but that doesn't mean he can't do this. Freedom of speech is far to easy to defend if it's just the things you happen to agree with. I want to see that movie and form my own opinion, I'm not interested in left-liberal or christian-right censorship, both are patronising and ultimately a lot more damaging than anything the movie will stir up.
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Geert Wilders' 'Fitna' might harm Dutch Trade, his oponents have assured us.
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4 comments:
well, as you can see on my blog, the film really wasn't much to scream about. will this really hurt dutch trade? i think not. if it did, wilders would have proven his point, and i am quite convinced he's in the wrong on this.
Bear, what exact opinion do you think you are likely to glean from seeing this film? That the Qur’an is inherently evil, that it is bad? Or perhaps that Geert Wilders so fantastically over-emphasizes negative elements associated with Islam that he himself comes of as some waywardly freaked-out religious diehard with very little point? After seeing Fitna, I tend to agree with the last opinion, and while I am sure you will also, it is reasonable to assume that many will probably be swayed by his fear mongering idiocy.
Quite frankly, I’d rather have not seen it in the first place if it meant the more persuadable element in society could be barred from seeing it as well. Unfortunately, the more we jibe on about whether the film should have ever been leaked/screened in the first place, the more publicity it gets, and the more likely it is that it will be seen.
I feel that Freedom of Speech (with regard to the Press) nowadays just seems to be used as some kind of fundamental flagship from which cynics can attack culture, people, and religion at will; at the same time it functions as an impenetrable shield behind which the same cynics can hide from the repercussions of their actions. I don’t know why so many people in western culture assume Freedom of Speech to be an inalienable Human Right. My impression is that from a global perspective it has always been more of an undefined privilege that comes with an enormous power that should not be so easily abused.
My impressions of the film. Geert Wilders is possibly a little tonto (his inbred eyes give him anyway). His film made hardly any sense to me whatsoever, and every time it seemed to be about to make a point, I got distracted by the insanely terrible editing. It looked like a background page template was used from Adobe Premiere. You’d think he put this thing together himself on his laptop. And then there was the footage – fuzzily archived clips of mentally disturbed sheikhs and ayatollahs beseeching the message of hatred, followed by sequences of Treblinka-like holocaust imagery. It all just came off as vaguely perverted.
And of course he had to include some decapitation clips – I mean, what’s entertainment without a little snuff. Nothing imbibes the heart of the innocent to hatred like real carnage. After seeing such imagery associated with the Qur’an, I get the feeling that it will not be long before we’re subject to an anti-Christian film that includes footage of a sweaty priest having non-consensual sex with a 6 year old as a means with which to lambaste the Bible. This is the other side of the coin. And neither side makes any sense as an argument.
As far as there is any point that can be derived from this film, I can only agree with Maurits Berger, prof at the University of Leiden, who was quoted in the Guardian as saying, “In fact, the film told more about Wilders than it did about the Qur’an, It represents his fear of Islam.”
Oh well. I hope that this film doesn’t do what I imagine Wilders clearly wants it to do – instigate tension and fear. Hopefully the innocent impressionables will be strong enough to see through the films outlandishly flawed arguments, and hopefully the Islamic faithful will be able to laugh it off as a pathetic jeer for punches that just aren’t worth throwing.
My thanks to Alex for posting the video. or not.
The reaction so far has been as mild as possibly could be, so it seems he's overshot the mark. I at least was expecting something a lot rougher than this. It doesn't have anywhere the kind of impact that submission had, mostly because of his deficiencies as a filmmaker.
I don't agree with your typification of freedom of speech, though. Yes, it's a privilege, but not one you should handle with care, in fact it's more or less the point that you don't. People's opinions are crude and illogical, but that is what a real public debate is, a free-for-all with plenty of dirty tricks and undesirable motives. Curbing it is not going to make the opinions disappear, it's only going to push them underground. You need these opinions right at the surface, and for all to see. The only way to beat them is to out-argue them.
Wilders' party has managed to splinter the right-wing vote from a serious bloc into a few islands in the stream. Less and less people are seeing it as solution, the days when Pim Fortuyn almost built a coalition with these votes is over.
One of my house-mates, she wares black socks, asked me what I thought about the film.
She is a well educated twenty year old girl, (Vwo + Hbo), and therefor she is not representing the majority of the population.
However after I told her the movie was about murderers and psycho's and about making us afraid of Islam, she kept on trying to make arguments like: 'but this is how they are, right?'
This film has made me very afraid of dutch people.
(I might have made 2 spelling mistakes or more, please forgive me)
Matthijs
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