(Muhammed not being pictured)
March 22nd, 2008 – A right-wing politician of the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, is about to release a film entitled Fitna; an Arabic word meaning religious discord or strife. This 15 minute feature describes the Islamic peoples as the ‘enemies of freedom’ whose utmost goal is the eradication of our liberties. Needless to say, the impending screening of the movie has sparked massive protest in Amsterdam as well as the official condemnation of Iran and Pakistan.
I am not going to analyze the Middle-Eastern anger at this new piece of anti-Muslim propaganda for two very valid reasons. Firstly, it would be quite boring since it can be summed up as: we are being criticized and denigrated therefore we are not happy. Secondly, I will avoid this aspect since, in the past year, I have somehow attracted a wide readership in the Muslim world (Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates…) and someone is bound to figure out where I live. This actually brings me to the point I wanted to discuss.
I question the motivation of the protesters whom took to the streets this Saturday as well as the dissociation from Geert of the Nether-gouvernment (awesomest adjectival form I could invent). It would be quite simple to say that the citizens of Amsterdam have a heightened sense of world community and a very low threshold for prejudice and racial opinion. I have faith in mankind yet unlike the Christian ones, my faith is grounded in harsh reality (I am going to close the blinds now). I truly believe that these protesters had better things to do and are thus protesting for a reason much closer to their personal interests. Two years ago, a Danish newspaper printed derogatory illustrations of the prophet Muhammed (Praise be unto him). This provoked a violent reaction from the Middle-East to the point where diplomats from Scandinavian countries were threatened and pulled out, the author and publisher of the journal had a price put on their heads and several terrorist attempts were made on the Danish people. I propose that this Nether-protest is a reactionary movement to show the Middle-East how this film was made by a marginal man with no supporters (subtext reading: please don’t hurt us…I like your head scarf…does it come in different colours?). My hypothesis is certainly corroborated by the Nether-President’s dissociation from the film and Mr. Wilders.
I consider myself a conservative libertarian. That means I will actively fight restrictions imposed on personal liberties yet I suggest that thorough discussions should precede any widespread exercise of these liberties. Geert does not incite rioting and hate crimes with his film; he is rather exposing his suggestion that the Muslim faith does not respect our democratic and liberal ideals in their own countries and thus dubs them ‘enemies of freedom’. I agree that taking a basic fact and extrapolating a generalizing truth to incite a certain behaviour is almost the dictionary definition of propaganda. I still believe Geert has the right to produce his film without the threat of bodily harm. Furthermore, critics, historians, sociologists, ethnologists and Ann Coulter will also be able to use the same raw data Geert used, add more and interpret it the way they want. Life and knowledge should be about debate. We will never find a universal truth about anything but it is not futile since we have fun pretending like we know stuff.
Douglas Adams famously enounced that we don’t know a billionth of percent about anything. I say thank Xenu since we have stuff to talk about and discuss freely. The Nether-protesters who try to boycott and censure a movie in the name of liberalism and democracy are guilty of much more hubris than Geert in my opinion.
(For those of you keeping count, I used Geert’s name 6 times in this blog, what a great name.)
(Pictured: The prophet muhammed (praise be unto him) not being pictured - Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad saying that he's OK with my blog.)
End.
March 22nd, 2008 – A right-wing politician of the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, is about to release a film entitled Fitna; an Arabic word meaning religious discord or strife. This 15 minute feature describes the Islamic peoples as the ‘enemies of freedom’ whose utmost goal is the eradication of our liberties. Needless to say, the impending screening of the movie has sparked massive protest in Amsterdam as well as the official condemnation of Iran and Pakistan.
I am not going to analyze the Middle-Eastern anger at this new piece of anti-Muslim propaganda for two very valid reasons. Firstly, it would be quite boring since it can be summed up as: we are being criticized and denigrated therefore we are not happy. Secondly, I will avoid this aspect since, in the past year, I have somehow attracted a wide readership in the Muslim world (Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates…) and someone is bound to figure out where I live. This actually brings me to the point I wanted to discuss.
I question the motivation of the protesters whom took to the streets this Saturday as well as the dissociation from Geert of the Nether-gouvernment (awesomest adjectival form I could invent). It would be quite simple to say that the citizens of Amsterdam have a heightened sense of world community and a very low threshold for prejudice and racial opinion. I have faith in mankind yet unlike the Christian ones, my faith is grounded in harsh reality (I am going to close the blinds now). I truly believe that these protesters had better things to do and are thus protesting for a reason much closer to their personal interests. Two years ago, a Danish newspaper printed derogatory illustrations of the prophet Muhammed (Praise be unto him). This provoked a violent reaction from the Middle-East to the point where diplomats from Scandinavian countries were threatened and pulled out, the author and publisher of the journal had a price put on their heads and several terrorist attempts were made on the Danish people. I propose that this Nether-protest is a reactionary movement to show the Middle-East how this film was made by a marginal man with no supporters (subtext reading: please don’t hurt us…I like your head scarf…does it come in different colours?). My hypothesis is certainly corroborated by the Nether-President’s dissociation from the film and Mr. Wilders.
I consider myself a conservative libertarian. That means I will actively fight restrictions imposed on personal liberties yet I suggest that thorough discussions should precede any widespread exercise of these liberties. Geert does not incite rioting and hate crimes with his film; he is rather exposing his suggestion that the Muslim faith does not respect our democratic and liberal ideals in their own countries and thus dubs them ‘enemies of freedom’. I agree that taking a basic fact and extrapolating a generalizing truth to incite a certain behaviour is almost the dictionary definition of propaganda. I still believe Geert has the right to produce his film without the threat of bodily harm. Furthermore, critics, historians, sociologists, ethnologists and Ann Coulter will also be able to use the same raw data Geert used, add more and interpret it the way they want. Life and knowledge should be about debate. We will never find a universal truth about anything but it is not futile since we have fun pretending like we know stuff.
Douglas Adams famously enounced that we don’t know a billionth of percent about anything. I say thank Xenu since we have stuff to talk about and discuss freely. The Nether-protesters who try to boycott and censure a movie in the name of liberalism and democracy are guilty of much more hubris than Geert in my opinion.
(For those of you keeping count, I used Geert’s name 6 times in this blog, what a great name.)
(Pictured: The prophet muhammed (praise be unto him) not being pictured - Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad saying that he's OK with my blog.)
End.
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