Fitna

Reading a lot of comments that this movie is racist. Labelling it as such is to completely remove oneself any critical thought which objectively looks at the material and point made and to ask yourself if it's message is legitimate. Non Muslims might find it scary and indeed the premise posed by this documentary will invoke such feelings. Muslims may feel marginalised by it's targeting of selective passages in religious text that they believe in while not being fanatical as those presented in the film.

Both have legitimate arguments but to dismiss the documentary as racist is arrogance without forethought. Indeed this short documentary poses very provocative sharp messages and In this it can be considered that it addresses a highly complex issue very simply, it doesn't seek to delve deeper.

However,current events with Islamic state and it's atrocities, a viewer cannot be blamed if a lot of what is posed in the video is coming to fruition. Take a walk through Mosul park in Northern Iraq and the full display of what living in a caliphate is like- that's if you can bear the sight of decapitated women and children. Documentaries like this are confronting and as such it helps address an issue. It is provocative, it can inspire hatred and anger but it demands us as non Muslims and Muslims to open a dialogue on how we live together. This movie is blatantly partisan but regardless any view needs to understand that this movie is not targeting peaceful Muslims but the fanatics it depicts.

When Will you people ever wake up? When will you start thinking out of the matrix that Satan and his agents (bankers, freemasons and Zionists) had built for you. Every now and then these agents come up with a new play to stir up the west against Islam and the same method is used again and again, taking holly verses out of context and bringing to the scene some ignorant Muslims wrong practices to prove their point of view. This scheme has started to take shape after 9/11 and the sad thing is that a lot of people still think of 9/11 as an Islamist extremist terrorist attack on freedom while it is clear now that 9/11 was an inside job used later as a pretext for police state, and to launch a "war on terror" having as objectives oil, weakening of Islamic countries, and keeping Israel the ultimate power in the middle east, and most of all fighting Islam which is becoming a big concern for these guys new order plan (the three monotheistic religions Islam, Christianity and Judaism should be weakened or even abolished if possible) they represent big problem for this evil plan. By the way, al-Qaeda, the reason for so called "war on terror" is a CIA creation, and the vast majority of Muslims think of it's members as deviated from true Islam.(are you starting to get it?) The cartoons of the profit and numerous movies and writings are pushing the west to clash with Islam which is spreading more and more especially in Europe. Please people, start thinking for yourselves far from the influence of the media lies. Read the Quran, make your own judgments, and pray to God for guidance sincerely. Allah invites Muslims to live in peace with all other religions and all verses dealing with jihad and fighting are about defending religion and land from attackers, as in Irak for instance (more than 1000000 victims since USA invasion, and they say Islam is terror). Islam is not a bad religion, but it happens that Islamic lands are filled with oil and Muslims are an obstacle to Satans plans. Allah, the God of Mohammad, Jesus, Moses and Abraham says in Quran: {If any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people} (Al maida 32) {There is no compulsion in religion} (Al bakara 256)

You can call it controversial, you can call it anything you like. Truth is, short Dutch effort 'Fitna' is a film that isn't sure weather it wants to shock, educate or insult; maybe it wants to do all three, maybe it really wants to just inform and none of the above. The truth also is, that the film is a mere series of pieces of footage that we have all seen before pasted together in-between some more found footage of certain somebody's talking in whatever language they're talking in about how much they hate the world.

I was not impressed by Fitna to the level I felt I was supposed to be; nor to the level the film perhaps wanted me to be. 2002 Iranian effort 'The Afghan Alphabet' is a much longer and much more disturbing insight into the mentality behind Afghans and their way of life; the interview the Iranian crew engage in with a young Koran believing boy has the boy thinking along the lines of 'The West are our enemies' and that 'Allah is great, God is great' and all the necessary religion led political mumbo-jumbo that is very sacred to them but seems obligatory to us. In Fitna, that scene is emulated but only for a brief ten seconds when this time Judaism is targeted by Muslims.

The Afghan Alphabet was a feature length documentary shot in Afghanistan very shortly after 9/11, Fitna is a documentary that is just about ten minutes and is really just a string of people either bashing the West or footage of recent terrorist events. The scenes in which Muslim extremists are talking about how much they hate their enemies are given no introduction, and we must believe what is being said through subtitles; things like "even a stone will say 'Oh Allah!'" which sounds like a pretty stupid thing to say. Likewise, the terrorist attack aftermaths merely consist of the most viewed videos on Youtube pasted together: the 7/7 bombings in London; the Spanish tube attacks and various 9/11 clips. We've all seen these videos and thus, if we let them affect us when watching this short film then we are tricking ourselves into hating Muslims even more since they are inter-cut into an actual documentary, rather than being viewed casually.

This tells us two things, firstly that Geert Wilders is pointing out that the Muslims think the 'enemy' is the United States, Spain and the United Kingdom. Wilders does include some found footage of Dutchman Theo van Gough who was killed by a Muslim, but it is only natural to make Holland look victimised since the filmmaker is Dutch. However, Wilders does point out a flaw in the Muslim belief: earlier on in the piece, he includes footage of an unnamed Muslim stating that all of the 'West' are the enemy; indeed the Koran verse itself says that you must 'terrorise Allah's enemy' but Wilders points out that Muslims have held up banners stating 'God Bless Hitler' which completely contradicts the Koran's belief. Hitler was German, he was from the West and German troops have probably fought in Afghanistan and Iraq under the banner of the U.N. – but shouldn't that double them up as the enemy? Muslims seem to think not. If Allah should bless Hitler, should he bless other such dictators like Stalin and Milošević? It doesn't make sense which is a point to the West.

Fitna may not have been all that necessary and really just adds more fuel to the fire but I did not learn anything new watching it, nor did I feel any different in my already set opinions of Islam. I am from Britain, I am from the West and thus; I am an enemy of the Muslims – if they had the choice, I'd be gone in an instant; like it or not. But that's the way it is and a die for a die, they are my 'enemy' even if I have not been brought up to actively hate them, but what they did in London in 2005 and in America in 2001 is barbaric and repulsive. But we already knew this, like we knew it before watching Fitna – I got the feeling that Wilders was trying to say Islam is really just an age old belief, thought up by people with nothing better to do and followed by people who are just as guilty.

Unfortunately, Islam is not something like an 'itch' or the cold weather; you cannot just ignore it and wait for it to go away – it's like a dripping tap and unless you get up and do something, it won't go away. The film tells us that Muslims are extremely antagonistic while adopting Nazi-like characteristics in their world domination and anti-Semitic ideas. Maybe Wilders is an attention seeker, maybe he's just very brave but one thing's for sure; he knows how to spark controversy and how to get people excited by simply pasting together a series of newsreel footage.

well.. i'vent seen the movie or whatever it is ,, from what I've known about it when i read the summary ....all i want to say to the director " go read history so well before doing such a thing called a documentary movie showing Islam far away from its real thing.. " ..well i agree that some Muslim terrorism organizations have done some terrorism attacks and so on , however far away from those kind of people who care about killing innocent people ( those ppl are criminals , and its against Islam order ) ..Islam is not a religion that teaches people how to terrify ppl and slaughter them or blow them up,... Islam is something far far far away from that ,,its not written in the Koran or have been told by Muhammad the prophet to kill ppl who r not Muslims,.,all i want to say that those people who are calling themselves defending the Islam they r doing nothing but making the Islamic people shaped so bad,Islam is the religion of etiquette , and how to treat with people so good...and its not an old belief thing,,Islam is founded on earth once Adam was created by god,,,well i wont talk about historical things and history of Islam here of course , cause u can found it everywhere on the net n in the libraries and many other places ,,,but the makers of this documentary movies don't read at all , and by the way since Muhammad the prophet , Muslims don't consider any ppl enemies until they consider them enemies ..whatever ,,, ... and yea am a Muzlim and am proud because am born a Muzlim ,,, and i respect ppl in other countries , .., respect there cultures and respect them in the good things of course,,,, and respect other ppl who r not Muslims ,cause Islam ordered Muslims to respect others no matter what they believe in or worship.. just telling people to go read before taking a bad view about this thing farewell

I suppose there are all sorts of reasons to make a film.

Usually when it is a documentary, as this purports to be, there is an expected nominal bit of exploration of the unknown, sometimes educational. I expected this value because I know the Koran to be so vulnerable. Its questionable origin has been taken to pieces in "Religion Ruins Everything," a recent book.

But this film makes another choice. Its made not for the western viewer who really is curious, but the very Islamist it condemns. Its intended to offend, and the viewer is merely tricked into collaborating. I think I would willingly participate in a much rougher film should someone choose to make one.

But this approach — to offend for the sake of making offense in front of us — is something I refuse to participate in.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.