freedom to spread hate?

freedom to spread hate?

with all the furor surrounding the release of Fitna a short (roughly 17mins) film made by Dutch politician geert wilders, i thought it was apt for me to blog about it. i'm not going to give a vivid minute-by-minute account of the film. i'll describe it briefly. basically, he claims that the Quran is a book promoting ideologies of hate, he quotes verses from the Quran while showing images of terrorist attacks. he suggests that Muslims should tear up the Quran and remove themselves from such a thinking.

the Dutch government does not condone the movie, indeed the prime minister himself regretted that wilders went ahead with releasing the movie. the reason they (the Dutch government) did not prevent the film's release was because they believe it as limiting one's freedom.

the right to freedom a lot of people believe is a concept that conflicts with the Muslim world. apparently Muslims do not condone freedom of speech/expression and Muslims cannot accept when their religion is openly criticised...

but is the release of such a film REALLY about freedom of speech? curious to know what wilders had to say, i watched the film. for me, i believe the movie has nothing to do with freedom of speech. he is condemning Islam openly and his outright discrimination is an insult towards the religion and its followers. what is he trying to achieve by selecting (because he was very, very SELECTIVE) verses from the Quran and then showing footage and images of violence that are carried out under the banner of Islam? what was he trying to portray by showing statistical data of Muslims in Europe and of Dutch Muslim policemen going to pray? he's generalising the religion, creating a panic trying to inform the people that even your next door neighbour could turn against you. he's insulting Muslims because he is claiming that all of us are dangerous, he is generalising acts that are done by a minority... he is taking a very sensitive issue and turning it into a political agenda, he's exacerbating the situation for Muslims the world over.

if its truly freedom of speech that this movie's release advocates then what about the time when Prince Harry went to a halloween party dressed as part of the nazi army? couldnt his argument be that it was his freedom to express himself? NO that is not an argument. he took a very sensitive issue and made fun of it, of course that isn't right. i don't condone it and no one else should!

it's not a question of freedom, but a question of tolerance, understanding and the most important of all, it's about RESPECT. how can one claim to be living in a pluralistic society if it lacks respect and tolerance? we might not agree with some people and their beliefs but out of RESPECT we do not insult them. yes, there is the argument that respect has to be earned and yes i admit a minority of Muslims (although the media depicts them as the majority) have not represented themselves well, but since when has the actions of a few should be used to generalise others? allow room for an analogy here, a very simple one in fact. i was listening to Talib Kweli's The Proud and he was rapping about the dangers of stereotyping in relation to how the media immediately connected the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombings to that of "Muslim" terrorists. the line that strikes me the most is when he says: "It's like saying only gays get AIDS"... u can not generalise (according to the UN 90% of HIV/AIDS victims in Africa are children), to make such a generalisation is to discriminate, to insult and is blatantly homphobic.

putting aside the question of freedom of speech, the movie's reliability itself is questionable. in quoting the Quran wilders is extremely selective. he chooses verses that indeed do talk about harming other people...however, the thing with the Quran is you can't just take a verse and expect it to explain itself. most of the verses that wilders quoted were hanging verses, they were in fact pointing out that you can only react if you've been discriminated against or harmed against. the historical context of the verses are not taken into consideration either. some are referring to a specific time and place.

The verses quoted are:

(in order of appearance in the film)

1. 8:60

2. 4:56

3. 47:4

4. 4:89

5. 8:39

the reason i have not written down the verses is because i don't believe they can be read hanging like that. you need to read the verses before and after and look into the historical context of the verse. what brought about it's existence. another thing that strikes me regarding wilders selection of the verses is that, out of all 6000 odd (i'm uncertain to the exact amount) verses in the Quran he only found 5 that really shows the evil-ness of Islam? ermmm it's like saying that because Shakespeare had a tendency to mispell some of his words (according to some guide books i read over the course of Eng.Lit in A-Levels) we should completely discard his work and tear up Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth etc, etc. do we do that? no, we don't.

the protests that occured before the release of the movie was violent yes i admit...as i write this i am holding my breath in fear that there will be more violence to come. i pray that it won't, because this is the sort of response that wilders wants. he wants us to validate his argument? but what is there to validate? Tariq Ramadan, my favourite speaker, summed up how Muslims should react towards the film really well by saying "...one should respond to his argument when there is an argument and simply ignore him when he is acting out of an orchestrated provocation." there is no argument to wilders film, it's release is to spread hate. to make people hate Muslims, that is why he showed the statistics of Muslims in Europe rising indefinitely, that is why he showed the council flats for Muslims in Amsterdam in his video (the inclusion of this in the video i find rather weird because it's not as if Muslims are living a happy and prosperous lifestyle. they may be increasing in numbers but they still remain marginalised in a socio-economic context)...

first he shows the violence committed by "all" Muslims then he shows their very presence in Netherlands, it's all done to spread hate. he wants people to hate Muslims to see Islam as the root of all problems. if we respond violently we are justifying his claims, we are corroborating his statements. and it saddens me that some people in malaysia (http://news.my.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1324902) are reacting inappropriately to the release of this short film... it makes me question such a reaction. are they only doing this to cover up some instability within the country? i mean malaysia is fond of that, a sign of problem and they send a man to the moon. so why not harp on an international issue so as to divert the attention of the nations population until this problem can be brushed underneath the carpet? sounds plausible.

i believe that Muslims should just remain silent about this movie. yes we can and should criticise it but once is enough. no need to carry on and on about it. and the least of all is get angry. that is the wrong thing to do. people are getting the wrong message about Islam through this movie and by reacting violently we're not solving the problem. there is a lack of understanding about our religion and we as Muslims should regard it as our duty to inform people what Islam is truly about. and first of all what makes you think burning a flag or stomping on a poster is a sign that you're a true believer? you're getting angry because someone has just insulted your religion but then again you do it on a daily basis by restricting woman the rights to their freedom...it's like that case in Sudan when the teddy bear was named Muhammad...suddenly the govt believes theyre upholding the message of Islam by imprisoning this woman when all this while the government has been neglecting the rights of their citizens and are immersed in civil warfare.

amidst all the negativity surrounding Fitna and it's release, i see one positive outcome of the movie. it made me want to learn more about my religion, it made me want to defend my religion in a positive way (and insyAllah, God willing, i will be able to do so). the first thing i did when i watched the movie was grab my Quran and immediately looked up the verses that were quoted. i hope that whoever watched the movie will do the same. if you haven't watched the movie, trust me you haven't missed out on anything.

taken from blog nadiah =)

p/s: thanks nadiah for helping me. my solely informer for stuff like this. lain kali boleh tlg lagi...