By now most everyone has heard about the short film, Fitna (“strife” in Arabic) by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. No doubt you have also heard that it was first available on the Internet video repository site, LiveLeak, then yanked … because of death threats against LiveLeak staff. LiveLeak restored it after taking security precautions; view it here.
I find it an interesting film, although most of the content it conveys, i.e. the calls to violence in the name of al-Lah and Islam found in the Qur’an, is actually old news. The film dramatically overlays these Qur’an quotations — as well as calls for violence in Islam’s name by Islamist-extremist terrorists — with footage of real terrorist acts perpetrated by real Muslims who really believe in these extreme interpretations of Islam and the Qur’an.
Of course, this film has aroused the ire of Muslims around the world, as happened previously with the Mohammed cartoons published by Wilders’ countrymen a couple years ago.
This current reaction to Fitna, now, has exactly the same impetus as the cartoon-controversy in 2006: Muslim immaturity and unwillingness to accept that anyone might criticize their religion.
Yes, I said immaturity. And I meant it. No other word describes it. To be incensed — to the point of violence — that someone does not believe what one believes, can only be called “immaturity.”
A global society such as the one we live in, cannot afford this kind of immaturity. Muslims are simply going to have to accept that there are other people in the world who do not like their religion. No religion — in fact, no ideology or package of beliefs of any sort — is entitled never to be analyzed or critiqued. To expect never to be criticized is irrational and juvenile. Period.
Anyone care to hazard a guess when Islam will collectively grow up and accept that there are people like Wilders who refuse to “surrender” (that is, after all, what islam means in Arabic) to their god al-Lah?
Tags: fitna, geert wilders, immaturity, intolerance, Islam, islamism, outrage, terrorism
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[...] be the first time Muslims have threatened people over things like this … a long time ago I blogged on the controversy over the film Fatwa by a Dutch parliamentarian. The reference to Theo van Gogh is an ominous one; [...]
[...] has been something of an anti-Muslim firebrand. One of my first blog posts, over two years ago, was about the release of his short movie Fitna, which condemns Islamist extremism. Wilders has found some acclaim in the Netherlands and is slated [...]