Nothing makes people want to see something more than banning it, or even better yet, telling them they may not be able to handle it (remember the Blair Witch Project?). On that basis, the new film Fitna, must be pulling in internet viewers by the tens of millions.
Everyone who's anyone in the "world community", from the Dutch Prime Minister to the OIC to the EU to the UN, is telling the world this is mighty hateful stuff.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is denouncing the internet premier of Fitna, claiming,
"The right of free expression is not at stake here,"
But Ban seems to imply there may be limits,
"...there is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence."
Oddly he was talking about the movie, not the Islamic violence portrayed in it, or that which is feared in response to it. In doing so, Ban places the UN at the head of the Islamic mobs which do indeed put the right of free expression at stake here.
Fitna, Arabic for "strife" or "disturbance", is the work of filmmaker and Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders. Wilders point is clear: Islamist terror is neither a distortion nor a departure from Koranic teaching. Terrorists are following the instructions of the Koran to the letter.
Unable to find a Dutch television channel brave enough to play the video, Wilders went to the internet. But even the internet-based world premier of Fitna was temporarily blocked by fearful Internet registrar Network Solutions. This is the first time any website has been peremptorily removed from the allegedly free-flowing internet. But after its producers found another web host willing to stand up to Islamist retaliation, Fitna is finally available on-line.
View Fitna
here in English. If this site is disabled go to this
link to find a new viewing location.
Within two hours, 1.5 million people had viewed it in either English or Dutch. By the time you read this, who knows?
In producing Fitna, Wilders follows in the footsteps of Theo van Gogh. The great-grandson of Vincent van Gogh's brother (the movie
Vincent & Theo was about the brothers), Theo was brutally shot and stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street November 3, 2004. This was in retaliation for directing the short feature video Submission, which focuses on Koranic instructions for violence against women.
His murderer was a Muslim who impaled a manifesto of Koranic verses complaining about Van Gogh's movie to his chest. After the director's murder, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the writer of Submission, was eventually stripped of her seat in the Dutch Parliament and forced into exile by the Dutch government. Following in the footsteps of an earlier generation of European exiles, she is now living in the United States with a position at the American Enterprise Institute.
You can view Submission
here. (It appears that part 2 is missing, however).
Release of Fitna is causing panic in Dutch political circles. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende says Wilders' movie "threatens the nation."
Wrong.
It is Islamic violence which threatens Holland and all of Europe. Exactly as in the 1930s, it is the weakness of European leaders which allows the threat to grow. Just as the League of Nations refused to stand up to fascism in pre-WW2 Europe, the United Nations grovels before Islam today.
But they do more that grovel. Out of fear they have actually taken up the work of Islam and are enforcing the Islamic law against "blasphemy" while the Islamists stand by approvingly. The role of the world's leaders of Liberal Democracy in enforcing Islamic Law echoes the Koranic
description of Armageddon (al-Malhamah al-Kubrah in Arabic). In it, Jesus returns to Earth at Damascus, becomes a Muslim and leads the Muslims in slaughtering all the Christians and Jews. As the Hadith explains;
"When the liar [the Christian enemies of Islam] will see Jesus, he will start dissolving like the salt in water."
Apparently the Islamists expect that civil libertarians will similarly "dissolve" in the face of their leaders' treachery.
Likewise, the Dutch Islamic Federation is so far avoiding street action or assassination and instead is going after Wilders in the courts, hoping to see that the Dutch and possibly European Union judiciary will serve Islam by jettisoning free speech and enforcing Islamic law. They demand a 50,000 Euro ($79,000) daily fine. Under Dutch "hate speech" laws, the Court very well may do just that. The expulsion of Ayaan Hirsi Ali was more satisfying than the murder of Theo van Gogh. The gradual bankrupting and then likely expulsion of Wilders would be equally satisfying. He will serve as an example to others.
Dutch protesters are also serving Islam, 3000 staging a March 22 street demonstration to denounce the movie (which they had not yet seen) and distance Holland from it. In Mumbai,India dozens performed civil disobedience, accepting arrest to protest the film. A statement issued by the World Muslim Congress emphasized how many Hindus and Christians were willing to do Islam's work for it.
Meanwhile Muslims are feigning outrage at Wilders' assertion that Islamic violence is rooted in the Koran and are still promising to riot. The Grand Mufti of Syria has determined that Wilders will be solely responsible for all the carnage -- an assertion apparently echoed by the Dutch government, the UN and by street demonstrators.
The Grand Mufti did not clarify whether current world-wide Islamic riots would be stopped in order to commence new riots over the movie -- or if the existing conflagrations will simply be re-branded and re-directed by local Islamic leaders.
But as yet -- 24 hours later -- there have been no apparent orchestrated outbreaks of violence. Islam may wish to watch the spectacle of the once-mighty Western Powers jettisoning their basic beliefs in order to submit to the will of Islam. Nothing better shows potential jihadis just how weak and decadent their enemy has become. No better terrorist recruitment tool exists.
Wilders is risking his life in order to bring this message to the world. To view it and even more important -- to publicly show it -- defeats the Islamist claim that the West, unlike some of its leaders, is prepared to submit to Islam.
