Europe Features
Anti-Islam film fails to provoke Dutch Muslims
Mar 28, 2008, 17:23 GMT
Amsterdam - The release of a controversial anti-Islam film by a Dutch legislator had been expected to cause turmoil among Muslims in the Netherlands and abroad.
But on Friday, a day after the 16-minute film entitled Fitna, which criticizes the Koran and warns of the 'Islamization' of the European country, Muslims in the migrant neighbourhood of Lombok in Utrecht did not appear shaken.
There was virtually no reaction throughout the Netherlands to Geert Wilders' much-anticipated film, that was watched by more than 2 million people within the first two hours of its release on the internet.
The vast majority of Dutch viewers, Muslims and non-Muslims alike appear not to have found the film particularly provocative towards Muslims.
In Eindhoven, several Muslim organizations distributed special forms in the city's seven mosques enabling everyone to file a complaint of discrimination against Wilders with the Dutch police.
But in the crowded shopping streets of Lombok in the fourth largest Dutch city, Muslims appeared much less motivated to take action against Wilders. Friday's shopping continued as usual.
'No, we are not talking about Fitna,' a man standing among a large group of Muslims standing outside a local mosque after prayers on Friday, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
'We are talking about my new car. That's really more important than some film by a Dutch legislator about the Koran.'
Another man, who identified himself as Ahmed, 27, added, 'Of course we watched the movie. But the truth is Wilders showed nothing new in his film. What does he think, that I agree to the horrific executions he showed in his film?'
In a local grocery store, a woman wearing a black burka responded confused when approached by dpa. She said she cannot talk to the media. Asked whether she had seen Wilders' movie, she apologized and walked away.
Another Muslim woman, wearing a headscarf had apparently witnessed the encounter, and approached dpa on her own initiative.
'It is a pity she did not talk to you,' said Fatima, a 32-year-old mother of two. 'Her refusal to talk to Western media confirms the ideas of people like Wilders.'
'The truth is that the vast majority of us, Dutch Muslims, do not identify with terrorist and fundamentalist ideas such as those expressed in the movie.'
'We just want to live our lives,' she said, 'but it's people like Wilders who polarize society and make us feel estranged. He says he sees a lot of integration problems in the Netherlands. The sad truth is that he himself contributes to them too.'
The umbrella organization of the Jewish community in the Netherlands, CJO, released a statement on Friday expressing a similar view.
'The film is counterproductive,' the CJO statement said. 'The expressions about Jews originating from the Koran, and referred to in the movie, demonstrate that some Muslims have horrific ideas about Jews and also indoctrinate children with such ideas. However, the way Fitna portrays reality polarizes society.'
Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he was 'proud' of Dutch Muslims and praised their calm reactions following the film.
The Dutch parliament is due to discuss the film on Tuesday.
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Older Talkback
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The film *is* worthy of a debate.
A debate about how fruitless it is to take sound bites out of a religious text to prove *anything*.
Take for instance, Matthew 25:41:
[41] Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
I consider the reasons why states that promoted certain models of self and world to their communities of faithful believers flourished and survived within the global culture, while others struggled and did not survive. What are the factors that influence the fate and destiny of a state that promotes a certain model of self and world? What determines whether it will survive or not? I hypothesize that if a state promotes to communities of faithful believers a model of self and world and survives then a model of self and world survives.
I think, believe, and expect that leadership offered by aggressive ideological traditions that have survived the competition is racist because these aggressive ideological traditions have the effect of motivating communities of faithful believers to run a race to out work, out fight and out number competition in the global culture. If communities of faithful believers self organized around aggressive ideological traditions that have survived the competition; lead members to believe; that Armageddon is a necessary final battle between a good one in Heaven and an evil one cast down to and ruling over Earth; and that after Armageddon a good one in Heaven will resurrect the dead; pass final judgment; transform faithful believers into beings with bodies of perfect form and function; and reward faithful believers with transport to a perfect place of eternal bliss some call Heaven; then racists running a race to out work, out fight and out number competition in the global culture; may become racists running a race to Armageddon.
Armageddon is presently being sold by some conservative ideological authorities as a necessary final conflict between a good one in Heaven and an evil one cast down to and ruling over Earth. Some communities of faithful believers have allowed conservative ideological authorities to dismiss the idea of a savior whose messages are of love, compassion and forgiveness and promote instead the idea of a savior whose return in a second coming will be as a warrior fighting in the end times to achieve final victory against an evil one cast down to and ruling over Earth in a great war to end all wars known as Armageddon. Many conservative ideological authorities have become racist, heterofascist, warmongers motivating communities of faithful believers to out work, out fight and out number competition in a race to Armageddon. They self righteously believe they will be raptured to Heaven before the Armageddon they have helped orchestrate unfolds upon those 'left behind'.
It is a lie to claim that myth is truth. The affirmation of an ability to know about the existence of a good one in Heaven at war with an evil one cast down to and ruling over Earth is a fraud that follows from the lie that myth is truth. Conservative ideological authorities perpetrate this fraud inorder to be able; to make threats against the life and or afterlife of anybody who does not submit to their authority; and to extort from communities of faithful believers tithes and offerings in exchange for a lifelong indoctrination in a standard of conduct that these same ideological authorities proclaim to be the discovery of the truth about the will of a good one in Heaven at war with and evil one cast down to and ruling over Earth. Extortion based on threats made against the life and or afterlife of others and or a fraudulent affirmation of an ability to know about the existence of a good one in Heaven at war with an evil one cast down to and ruling over Earth should be considered a crime against humanity because in committing acts of extortion based on fraud that follows from the lie that myth is truth these ideological authorities lead communities of faithful believers to have a low esteem of self and world that is not conducive to happiness and health.
I theorize that a belief in the myth of limited access to divine inspiration creates a need for the establishment of ideological authorities to act as intermediaries between communities of faithful believers and a good one in Heaven. As a secondary source of income, some of these same ideological authorities who act as intermediaries might be expected to be willing to sell their influence over communities of faithful believers to a mercenary plutocratic predatory few. Satisfying a need and aspiration of a mercenary plutocratic predatory few to achieve and maintain authority, power, order, and control over the state might then be a matter of buying influence from ideological authorities leading communities of faithful believers. The result of such influence peddling being that those ideological authorities who are most useful in satisfying the need and aspiration of a mercenary plutocratic predatory few to achieve and maintain authority, power, order, and control over the state are given funding and those who are not receive little or no patronage. Once authority, power, order, and control over the state are attained, the mercenary plutocratic predatory few may then seek to expand their authority, power, order, and control to bring the entire global culture under their rule by patronizing those ideological authorities who best motivate communities of faithful believers to out work, out fight, and out number competition in the global culture.
As communities of faithful believers race to out work, out fight, and out number competition in the global culture, they are confronted by the limited dimensions of the planet Earth. We live in a body consuming biosphere on a crusted magma globe of limited dimensions. There is a limit to the supply of energy and space made available to communities of faithful believers by the planet Earth and thus there would appear to be a limit to the exponential growth of these communities of faithful believers; and a limit to the time that the race to out work, out fight, and out number competition could be run. Yet these are the aggressive ideological traditions of racist, heterofascist, warmongering communities of faithful believers. The world today appears headed towards ever more profound disasters, calamities, desolations and conflicts as some authoritarian, powerful, orderly, controlling states drive their own people to out work, out fight, and out number the rest of the global culture in a race to win the game of survival and sacrifice as it pertains to states and nations of people. As such, the need and aspiration of some states to maintain and achieve authority, power, order, and control over communities of faithful believers and the global culture as a whole supersedes the need and aspiration of the individual to be happy and healthy.
In the past, those communities of faithful believers that out worked, out fought and out numbered competitors won in the game of survival and sacrifice. That means those ideological traditions that best motivated communities of faithful believers to out work, out fight, and out number competitors survived and those that did not were sacrificed. This explains the success of books like the Bible. Books like the Bible survive in part because books like the Bible motivate communities of faithful believers to out work, out fight and out number competition.
Conservative Christians would argue that success is proof that books like the Bible contain words expressing the will of God. Here is a problem with that line of reasoning. There are other books besides the Bible that have been successful in motivating communities of faithful believers to out work, out fight and out number their competition: the holy Koran being a notable example. I believe both books are products of an on going evolution within the global culture of ideological traditions where in those ideological traditions that best motivate communities of faithful believers to out work, out fight, and out number competitors survive and those ideological traditions that do not perish. I believe the much talked about clash of cultures between Islam and Christianity reflects an on going conflict to determine whose holy book best expresses the will of God as well as a fight between motivated communities of faithful believers over increasingly scarce natural resources of our body consuming biosphere of limited dimensions. I believe the much talked about race in racism is a race towards Armageddon run by communities of faithful believers motivated by aggressive ideological traditions to out work, out fight and out number competition.
God does not exist. All religions should be mocked until they are gone.
God does not exist. All religions should be mocked until they are gone.
God does not exist. All religions should be mocked until they are gone.
God does not exist. All religions should be mocked until they are gone.
So many thanx to geert to expose himself and his wild nature
www.nationalpost.com/most_popular/story.html?id=391879
That is the other cheek of christianity:
It is the evidence of the other cheek of european paganism?
DID THE MUSLIMS MAKE SUCH A MOVIE AGAINST CHRISTIANITY? NO! NO! NO!
Actually bible tells of the ignorant god they believe in see the very first page;
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201:1-21;&version=31;31;49 ;45;
It cannot be from real God Almighty. This stupid ignorant entity does not know the light! he says that sun did not exist before the earth, while science proves them to be together at one time in one mass, burning like the sun. What kind of entity is this? This entity does not know to create the woman with man, while even the lower animals had differentiated into males and females. If you take the females out then the species will end! Then the stupid thing takes rib of man to make the woman!
I have one more thing to add, see if this book [Holy Bible] says any thing good about anyone, including Jesus!
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MaarkeMar 28th, 2008 - 19:00:20
This article puts this film exactly in its place...the trash can. No one really cares. It should not offend anyone. If you examine the wars and fights in Christendom, or Jewry or even Chinese... religious aggression is every place.
I personally turned it off. I found it dull and boring.
Maarke
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