Dolf's Blog
Integral thoughts about development, humanity, spirituality
Fitna - The Misguided
A lot has been said about the movie before its contents were even known. Now that it is out, it naturally leads to a deception, both in terms of its contents ( a slideshow of previously released images and texts from the Koran) and the predictable reaction from the world.
All the hullabaloo about Wilders' movie was more caused by the reaction of our government, who had never even seen the movie, than anything else. Without knowing its contents, the Dutch government raised red flags, let alarm bells sound, as if WW-III was about to begin.
Now that the movie is out, everyone can see that it contains nothing new. All of the contents are taken from previously released material and shows a cause-and-effect coupling that does not apply to Islam as a whole. It uses gross generalisations to get to the statement that the Koran and Islam as a whole would be evil. Apparently Wilders is blind for the fact that the extreme forms of any religion or political stream do not define it as a whole. The majority of Islam has nothing to do with the extremist forms of it. However, all we get to see are the excesses and we are lead to believe that it is the majority that is defined by the excesses.
Obviously, the reactions to the movie were as predictable as the movie itself: 40 demonstrators in Indonesia throw eggs at the Dutch embassy and demand Wilders' death. So the world believes that Indonesia as a whole agrees with those statements.
What is missing is a realistic dialogue between groups that have issues with each other and openness to the points of view of others. If this movie leads to that, the it was worth releasing it. If not, then it was just another ripple on the waves of eternity.
