Islam in the Netherlands | Wild thing | Economist.com

Posted on February 11th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

Islam in the Netherlands | Wild thing | Economist.com
Wild thing

The Netherlands frets about the likely impact of a new anti-Islam film

AFP Wilders ponders the Koran

THE Netherlands is going through a “considerable crisis”, says the prime minister. The Iranians are musing publicly about cutting diplomatic ties. The grand mufti of Syria has issued grave warnings of war and bloodshed. Dutch citizens living in Muslim countries have been asked to report any worrying incidents.

The one thing missing is the cause of the fuss: an anti-Islamic film neither made nor shown by a Dutch member of parliament, Geert Wilders. In November Mr Wilders revealed his plan to air on television an exposé of the wickedness of the Koran, which he calls an Islamic “Mein Kampf”. The film is said to include shots of him desecrating the Koran. Dutch state television appears reluctant to show it, so Mr Wilders now talks of a private broadcaster, or using the internet. But the mere talk of his film has been enough to ignite a renewed debate about Islam in Europe and the limits on free speech.

The Dutch have reason to worry. Two years ago the publication of Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper triggered anti-Danish riots around the Muslim world. Two years before that a film about Islam, “Submission”, was shown on Dutch television; soon afterwards its director, Theo van Gogh, was butchered in an Amsterdam street by a radical Dutch Islamist, who also threatened the screenplay writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (now living in America). Mr Wilders’s film could, some fear, have similarly violent consequences.

Mr Wilders’s anti-immigrant party has nine seats in parliament, too few to affect the government’s fairly tolerant policy towards the country’s Muslim minority. But he has jabbed his finger into several sore spots. He has publicly questioned the loyalty of two cabinet members with dual nationality (ie, Turkish and Moroccan as well as Dutch). He called a third minister “barking mad” because of her liberal integration policies. And he has demanded a ban on immigration from Muslim countries.

Mr Wilders might seem just a provocateur. But his power lies in the rhetoric that he uses to contrast such liberal notions as gay rights and female emancipation with the image of an intolerant and anti-modern Islam, says Paul Schnabel, head of a Dutch government social-science institute. Polls show that the Dutch rate freedom of speech as one of their most important values—and many see Mr Wilders as its champion. He is a “modern conservative”, argues Mr Schnabel, able convincingly to demand of immigrants that they should show full loyalty to Dutch values.

As important as Mr Wilders’s political talent is the absence of powerful countervailing voices speaking up for inclusiveness, pluralism and a more respectful public debate. Many Muslim immigrants suffer from relative poverty, from high levels of crime and from social segregation. The government focuses on policies to improve the education of second-generation Muslims, get more of them to work and find ways to reduce crime. The justice minister, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, insists that such measures offer the best hope of improving the sour relationship between Muslims and native Dutch folk. But the technospeak often used to describe them hardly matches the fiery one-liners launched from the right.

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Islam in the Netherlands | Wild thing | Economist.com

Posted on February 11th, 2008 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Islam in the Netherlands | Wild thing | Economist.com
Wild thing

The Netherlands frets about the likely impact of a new anti-Islam film

AFP Wilders ponders the Koran

THE Netherlands is going through a “considerable crisis”, says the prime minister. The Iranians are musing publicly about cutting diplomatic ties. The grand mufti of Syria has issued grave warnings of war and bloodshed. Dutch citizens living in Muslim countries have been asked to report any worrying incidents.

The one thing missing is the cause of the fuss: an anti-Islamic film neither made nor shown by a Dutch member of parliament, Geert Wilders. In November Mr Wilders revealed his plan to air on television an exposé of the wickedness of the Koran, which he calls an Islamic “Mein Kampf”. The film is said to include shots of him desecrating the Koran. Dutch state television appears reluctant to show it, so Mr Wilders now talks of a private broadcaster, or using the internet. But the mere talk of his film has been enough to ignite a renewed debate about Islam in Europe and the limits on free speech.

The Dutch have reason to worry. Two years ago the publication of Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper triggered anti-Danish riots around the Muslim world. Two years before that a film about Islam, “Submission”, was shown on Dutch television; soon afterwards its director, Theo van Gogh, was butchered in an Amsterdam street by a radical Dutch Islamist, who also threatened the screenplay writer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (now living in America). Mr Wilders’s film could, some fear, have similarly violent consequences.

Mr Wilders’s anti-immigrant party has nine seats in parliament, too few to affect the government’s fairly tolerant policy towards the country’s Muslim minority. But he has jabbed his finger into several sore spots. He has publicly questioned the loyalty of two cabinet members with dual nationality (ie, Turkish and Moroccan as well as Dutch). He called a third minister “barking mad” because of her liberal integration policies. And he has demanded a ban on immigration from Muslim countries.

Mr Wilders might seem just a provocateur. But his power lies in the rhetoric that he uses to contrast such liberal notions as gay rights and female emancipation with the image of an intolerant and anti-modern Islam, says Paul Schnabel, head of a Dutch government social-science institute. Polls show that the Dutch rate freedom of speech as one of their most important values—and many see Mr Wilders as its champion. He is a “modern conservative”, argues Mr Schnabel, able convincingly to demand of immigrants that they should show full loyalty to Dutch values.

As important as Mr Wilders’s political talent is the absence of powerful countervailing voices speaking up for inclusiveness, pluralism and a more respectful public debate. Many Muslim immigrants suffer from relative poverty, from high levels of crime and from social segregation. The government focuses on policies to improve the education of second-generation Muslims, get more of them to work and find ways to reduce crime. The justice minister, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, insists that such measures offer the best hope of improving the sour relationship between Muslims and native Dutch folk. But the technospeak often used to describe them hardly matches the fiery one-liners launched from the right.

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Protected: AD.nl – Rotterdam Stad – ‘Moslimavriendelijk’ naar de kapper

Posted on February 11th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

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Wilders discloses more information about film – Expatica

Posted on February 11th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Public Islam.

Wilders discloses more information about film – Expatica
Freedom Party PVV faction leader Geert Wilders has disclosed more information out about his controversial anti-Islam film.

11 February 2008

AMSTERDAM – Freedom Party PVV faction leader Geert Wilders has disclosed more information out about his controversial anti-Islam film, the Volkskrant reports. The film will be titled Fitna Arabic for ‘trial, ordeal, it will be 15 minutes long, and end with a print of the prophet Mohammed. “Something happens with the print, but I dont want to say what,” Wilders said in an interview with the GPD Associated Press Services.

In the interview Wilders says he wanted to take the films title from the Koran. He says that ‘fitna refers to situations in which the faith of Muslims is tested. He uses the term ‘reflectively. Wilders: ‘Islam and the Koran are my ordeal. For me the corrupting Islam is fitna.”

Wilders reiterated that the film will be released in March. It is still not clear where it will be broadcast. He says he is still in talks with Dutch channels.

The governments attitude, which has put the Dutch embassies and police forces on edge, and the commotion that has arisen in the Islamic world in advance of the film have already proved his view right, Wilders says. In an opinion piece in the Volkskrant he reported that the panicked reactions demonstrate that Islam is “an intolerant ideology.”

Since his point has been proven, the film does not even have to be made. But it will be, Wilders told the Telegraaf in late January. In the GPD interview he explains that he will illustrate excerpts and verses from the Koran with documentary footage. In doing so he wants to demonstrate that the Koran “is not a dead letter, but the face of Islam: a life-sized threat.”

The film gives international examples of “Islamic evil” and then zooms in on the Netherlands. It is unclear what he will show of the Netherlands. Nor did Wilders want to comment further on whether the Koran will be torn or burned in his film.

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