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Intimidation and censorship are no answer to this inflammatory film
The Guardian ^ | April 10, 2008 | Timothy Garton Ash

Posted on 04/10/2008 5:05:36 AM PDT by moderatewolverine

At the time of this writing, the dissemination on the worldwide web of the deliberately provocative anti-Islam film Fitna, made by the Dutch populist MP Geert Wilders, has not provoked violent protest on the scale of the Rushdie affair or the Danish cartoons. If things remain this way, that is progress of a kind.

In the meantime, three questions need to be asked about the film, which anyone can find by googling "wilders" and "fitna". The first is "Should Mr Wilders be murdered for making it?" That's what some demonstrators outside the Dutch embassy in Indonesia called for, waving banners saying "Kill Geert Wilders". Theirs is an attitude that the British writer Douglas Murray has sharply characterised as "say my religion is peaceful or I will kill you". More seriously, even before the movie was released, al-Qaida issued a fatwa calling Muslims everywhere to assassinate Wilders, thus further increasing the threat to a man who is already under 24-hour protection.

Now, that Wilders should not be murdered for making a film may seem so obvious that it hardly needs saying. But it does need saying, again and again; in truth, it's the first thing that needs to be said. For one of the most deeply corrosive realities of our time is that not just one but many people across the world are living under death threats, in hiding or with round-the-clock security, simply because they have said, drawn or done something that is alleged to "insult Islam".

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: fitna; geertwilders; islam; terror
I would put money on the fact that more than 75% of the people bashing this film haven't watched it from beginning to end. It doesn't insult Islam, it insults the raving lunatics who behead people in the name of Islam.
1 posted on 04/10/2008 5:05:36 AM PDT by moderatewolverine
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To: moderatewolverine

I have seen it and the REAL QUESTION IS......is there anything false in it?


2 posted on 04/10/2008 5:11:52 AM PDT by Recon Dad (Marine Spec Ops Dad)
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To: moderatewolverine
anti-Islam film

every clip is from the actions of the muzzies - so if it's anti-Islam, let them turn on the islamofacists...

3 posted on 04/10/2008 5:14:19 AM PDT by maine-iac7 ("...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time" LINCOLN)
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To: moderatewolverine
http://www.themoviefitna.com/
4 posted on 04/10/2008 5:18:22 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: moderatewolverine

This kind of stuff makes me want to SCREAM! Big deal - people don’t agree with a “religion” that advocates cutting someone’s head off. If they truly agree with what the radicals are saying, why are they so adament at keeping it a “secret”?
Seems like if they believe beheadings and “honor killings” of young girls, they would be preaching it in public loud and proud.
I found nothing in the film untrue — perhaps they are so upset because darkness cannot stand the light..........


5 posted on 04/10/2008 5:21:06 AM PDT by captjanaway
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To: moderatewolverine
Here is a site with the movie Fitna.
6 posted on 04/10/2008 5:21:39 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: captjanaway

My favorite is when people try to equate it with “hey, you know Christians murder people in the name of religion too.”


7 posted on 04/10/2008 5:30:57 AM PDT by moderatewolverine
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To: moderatewolverine
. . .don't forget the 'pre-school' Education program. . .and the senseless bombings 'round the world' and the hate message of jihad.

Lives risked to make this film; 'air' it. Hope everyone, will bite the bullet - if that is what it takes - and watch it. And share it.

8 posted on 04/10/2008 5:36:14 AM PDT by cricket (Damn Political Correctness; before it irretrievably, damns us all. . .)
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To: moderatewolverine

Islam is an insult to Mankind.

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters


9 posted on 04/10/2008 5:37:13 AM PDT by bray (Go InSain)
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To: moderatewolverine
My favorite is when people try to equate it with “hey, you know Christians murder people in the name of religion too.”

Available on 'you tube' too. . .

10 posted on 04/10/2008 5:40:41 AM PDT by cricket (Damn Political Correctness; before it irretrievably, damns us all. . .)
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To: moderatewolverine
Jewish Dutch television producer Harry de Winter, who says you can find sentences on violently abusive of homosexuals, women and non-Jewish preachers in the Jewish Torah, and that if the film had been made about Jews it would be antisemitic.

This is one of the more shallow anti-Christian/Semitic arguments. The response is easy: how many Hebrew terrorist organizations can you name?

11 posted on 04/10/2008 5:40:51 AM PDT by GOP_Party_Animal
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To: All

Read the koran. It is a hate-filled war manual written by a pedophile prophet who was completely insane. The people killing infidels in the name of islam are not “radicals”, rather they are islamic “constructionists”......


12 posted on 04/10/2008 6:27:16 AM PDT by Maverick68 (w)
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To: Maverick68

PS:
Yes, you will find many anectdotal instances of some very good people who profess to be muslim, but they are in fact people who are cherry-picking the religion, or in many cases simply lying (their religion says it is OK to lie to non-muslims)....


13 posted on 04/10/2008 6:28:50 AM PDT by Maverick68 (w)
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To: moderatewolverine

The reason there are not any riots is that the islamo-facists do not find anything wrong with the film. They probably just muted the soundtrack and using it for recruitment.


14 posted on 04/10/2008 7:25:21 AM PDT by CoastWatcher
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To: moderatewolverine

I want my free speech back.


15 posted on 04/10/2008 7:42:20 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Get Reid. Salazar, and Harkin out of the Senate.)
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To: moderatewolverine
My favorite is when people try to equate it with “hey, you know Christians murder people in the name of religion too.”

That's happened, what, twice in the last few decades? That's even if you discount the fact that they were psychos and the majority of Christians loudly condemned their actions.

16 posted on 04/10/2008 8:57:12 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: GOP_Party_Animal
The response is easy: how many Hebrew terrorist organizations can you name?

The Jewish Defense League was pushing it, and then there's Kahane Chai. Their body count isn't quite as high as the Muslims' though.

17 posted on 04/10/2008 9:03:17 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Maverick68
but they are in fact people who are cherry-picking the religion

I see that in Christians too, leaning more towards the attitude of the wrathful God of the OT or Jesus' message of peace and love in the NT. Put it on a scale and I'd say most lean 2/3 either way and are still considered relatively mainstream. Then you have those who go 100% either way, the Phelps clan in the OT and the newer permissive feel-good denominations for the NT.

The Mulsims have the same thing, a tolerant Mohammed of early days with a message of peace under one god and the "kill 'em all" Mohammed of later years. Plus there's the fact that the Quran was written after his death in a time of Muslim supremacy in the region, so I'm sure it got further skewed towards "kill the infidel."

18 posted on 04/10/2008 9:12:02 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: moderatewolverine

“The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend. “ Marcus Cicero


19 posted on 04/10/2008 12:59:16 PM PDT by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: moderatewolverine
In Europe especially, what you really have is fear.

They are afraid of dealing with a problem, and especially those who work in the security apparatuses know what is going on.

France in part avoided action in Iraq because they stood to gain by keeping Saddam in power, but also because it's a political reality that over 8.5% of their population is Muslim. At the same time, taking a position against the US and the war makes a statement that has positive feedback from both the left and right, which is exactly the game Schroeder played as well in Germany. His “Deutscher Weg” amounted to pandering to his left base which is generally anti-US and largely pacifist, but also catered to the right to whom this story was sold as some sovereign act of German defiance to the US. It apparently took a lot of courage to do what they did.

While Germany under Schroeder was all but declaring the GWOT a figment of some crazy cowboy's imagination, they internally clamped down on immigration, they changed their deportation laws, eased the laws for eavesdropping, began monitoring mosques and dedicated far more resources to islamist based radical groups. But of course there is no threat! Germany is far better off than their neighbor France, whose North African population is far more radicalized than the Turkish population. Nonetheless, what you really have in Europe is a general mood that wants to avoid, downplay, and smooth over.

A perfect example of the avoid, ignore, and smooth over mentality found in Europe can be seen in Spain after the Madrid bombing. They not only quit Iraq and the population more or less became defeatist, their government at first even attempted to deny Islamic connections, stating this was a home grown terror plot. Home grown it was, but it was also executed by self professed Islamic Jihadists.

Europe is at greater risk that we are. They are closer to the danger Iran, Syria, Libya..... They are far more economically dependent on oil resources from these regions, have greater Islamic populations, and have historical lines of contention that run deep. Even the Balkans shows the cracks in the harmonious peaceful picture of Europe along religous lines, but that too is overlooked. They have not had a single attack like 911 that cost 3,000 lives, but they had London, Pim Fortyn, Madrid, have Senators in Holland that are in hiding, foiled plots in Germany (numerous), Van Gohg........ The general mood in Europe is one of appeasement and the M.O. in appeasing is to avoid, downplay, or smooth over the problem. Muslim riots in France become “disenfranchised youths.” You have the EU already issuing internal directives for bureaucrats to not use the world “Islamist” in any correspondence and self censorship is a reality in this picture even in their own media. They know who was behind Munich, Mogadishu, Pan Am 103, La Belle, those with half a brain and are older than 40 remember Libyan missiles falling on Sicily in 1986..... It's a big problem and a horrible fight, but sometimes you simply don't have a choice. Ronald Reagan summarized it best in his famous speech- A Time of Choosing. “You can have peace immediately, if you surrender.”

They won't admit it, but it's essentially fear that is driving the policy of appeasement in Europe.

20 posted on 04/10/2008 2:08:22 PM PDT by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: Red6
They won't admit it, but it's essentially fear that is driving the policy of appeasement in Europe.

Unfortunately, appeasement is the only response to evil that Europeans seem capable of.

But, if history is any guide, even Europeans rise up and fight when their very cultural existence is threatened. Whereupon, things get exceedingly bloody.

I wonder if they've still got it in them...

21 posted on 04/10/2008 2:35:23 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
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