Netherlands: Islamic movie mania

[Wanted Man]

Violence fear over Islam film


Counter-terrorism alert as a Dutch right-winger launches a movie that will denounce the Koran

Jason Burke, Europe editor
Sunday January 20, 2008
The Observer (http://www.observer.co.uk/)

The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician who has threatened to broadcast images of the Koran being torn up and otherwise desecrated.Cabinet ministers and officials, fearing a repetition of the crisis sparked by the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper two years ago, have held a series of crisis meetings and ordered counter-terrorist services to draw up security plans. Dutch nationals overseas have been asked to register with their embassies and local mayors in the Netherlands have been put on standby.

Geert Wilders, one of nine members of the extremist VVD (Freedom) party in the 150-seat Dutch lower house, has promised that his film will be broadcast - on television or on the internet - whatever the pressure may be. It will, he claims, reveal the Koran as 'source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror'.Dutch diplomats are already trying to pre-empt international reaction. 'It is difficult to anticipate the content of the film, but freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend,' said Maxime Verhagen, the Foreign Minister, who was in Madrid to attend the Alliance of Civilisations, an international forum aimed at reducing tensions between the Islamic world and the West. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other towns with large Muslim populations, imams say they have needed to 'calm down' growing anger in their communities.

Government officials hope that no mainstream media organisation will agree to show the film, although one publicly funded channel, Nova, initially agreed before pulling out. 'A broadcast on a public channel could imply that the government supported the project,' said an Interior Ministry spokesman.
Demonstrations are also expected from those opposed to Wilders beyond Holland's Muslim community - a number of left-wing activists have already been arrested - and from his supporters. Members of a group calling itself Stop Islamisation of Europe are planning to travel to Amsterdam. 'Geert Wilders is an elected politician who has made a film, and that he is under armed guard as a result is absolutely outrageous,' said Stephen Gash, a UK-based member, yesterday. 'It is all about free speech.'

In November 2004, anger and violence followed the stabbing and shooting by a Dutch teenager of Moroccan parentage of the controversial film-maker Theo Van Gogh, a distant relative of the artist.
The attacker said the killing was in response to a film about Islam and domestic violence that Van Gogh had made with the Somalian-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, then an MP, which showed images of naked veiled women with lines from the Koran projected over them.
From her self-imposed exile in Washington, Hirsi Ali last week criticised the new film as 'provocation' and called on the major Dutch political parties to restart a debate on immigration that has split Dutch society in recent years, rather than leave the field to extremists.

Wilders announced his plans last November, saying he was making a film to show the violent and fascist elements of the Muslim faith. The maverick politician's remarks about Islam have become increasingly radical. In February last year he said that if Muslims wanted to stay in the Netherlands, they should tear out half of the Koran and throw it away. In parliament he then called for the Koran and Hitler's Mein Kampf to be banned, a proposal that was rejected.
Job Cohen, the left-wing mayor of Amsterdam, echoed Hirsi Ali's words and called for a debate 'so that the moderates can make themselves heard'.
During a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg last week, Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria, said that, were Wilders was seen to tear up or burn a Koran in his film, 'this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed ... It is the responsibility of the Dutch people to stop him.'





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[Wanted Man]

This article actually has some inaccuracies. The extremist party is actually the PVV. The VVD is the larger (23 seats or so) party that Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Rita Verdonk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Verdonk) used to belong to.

Anyway: discuss.

[Ismail]

Thing is, these people aren't doing this to say "Hey, religious extremists, stop being so damned extreme!"

They're doing this to show that "OMG TEH MUSLEMS ARE TAKING OVER". They are intentionally pissing them off, so that the government might put harder measures/restrictions on those with Arab/Moroccan/Persian/Indonesian/etc backgrounds. Stopping extremism will be accomplished by stopping neo-colonialism, imperialism, and after those are done setting up a Marxist-Leninist movement since the religious can no longer claim that "things are shitty because we have abandoned God" and instead focus can be put on main economic issues and so on.

[spartan]

I actually agree, to an extent, with Mrdie.

No side in this is "right", but you can tell that the right wing is trying to provoke a reaction out of the people, who this film is directed at, to achieve their own political goals of forcing stricter laws on them.

But this issue is tough for me as i am also for freedom of speech, and these people should have the freedom to critiscize Islam and not be harmed because of this critiscism.

Like i said this issue is tough and i dont think that any of the sides involved in this are completly "right" about their respective positions on this issue.

[Sleeping Dog]

Certainly is a conundrum. I wonder if an effort to prevent provocation is not a form of counter productive Cognitive Dissonance.

Question when will the Islamics assimilate?

[Anarchist Freedom]

good they're doing something right for once. I like this idea maybe islamic extremists will realize what it looks like to act like a complete fool. I cant understand how this can anger anyone but some muslims Its not as thought muslims have never desecrated an american flag or torn apart a bible so that makes them just as bad so muslims suck it!

[Wanted Man]

good they're doing something right for once. I like this idea maybe islamic extremists will realize what it looks like to act like a complete fool. I cant understand how this can anger anyone but some muslims Its not as thought muslims have never desecrated an american flag or torn apart a bible so that makes them just as bad so muslims suck it!
So you are in support of the attacks by the extreme right on minorities because some of them have desecrated the American flag?

[Faux Real]

good they're doing something right for once.
What, joining the trend in the west to dehumanize, criminalize, and portray the over 1 billion Muslims in the world as fanatics who will stop at nothing to see the "civilized world" conquered by some miraculous Caliphate (that does not even exist)?

I like this idea maybe islamic extremists will realize what it looks like to act like a complete fool.
What extremists? Muslims are a minority in the Netherlands, a highly discriminated against minority. The fools are the ones propegating and perpetuating this hatred of a disenfranchised group of working class immigrants.

I cant understand how this can anger anyone but some muslims Its not as thought muslims have never desecrated an american flag or torn apart a bible so that makes them just as bad so muslims suck it!
Oh fuck off. If you have a problem with people "desecrating" an American Flag you should not call yourself an anarchist.

[Wanted Man]

Oh, I forgot, another inaccuracy: Mein Kampf is already banned, and Wilders wants to make the Koran #2 on the list of banned books. He says that it is "a fascist book", and that it does have some good elements, but if you'd filter out all the bad parts, it would be "as thin as a Donald Duck magazine". In response, Education Minister Plasterk proposed allowing the sale of Mein Kampf, which was met with derision.

[Herman]

Wilders is such a joke. He's the worst of the worst in the Lower chamber.

[UndergroundConnexion]

I'd like to point out that "when will they assimiliare ". This is a worryign remark. You know that there are three ways to extermintate a popluation : forcing in to assimilate, deporting them , and physicaly terminate them. But back on the topic , I think it is extremely important to denounce Wilder's neoliberal ideas, and show they average person his economic plans shall do more harm any other party. Sadly this man manages to hide this agenda, so he gets through with this non sense. And apart from that I am sure that theologically this movie is not going to make any sense. If you want to learn about Islam I better suggest you spend those 10 mn (Wilder's movie is lasting 10mn ) listening to a Tariq Ramadan podcast or video.

[grove street]

good they're doing something right for once. I like this idea maybe islamic extremists will realize what it looks like to act like a complete fool. I cant understand how this can anger anyone but some muslims Its not as thought muslims have never desecrated an american flag or torn apart a bible so that makes them just as bad so muslims suck it!

I suggest that you read Gunter Wallraff"s article "Lowest of the Low" before making assumptions about Europe"s immigrant Muslim comunity