R. Bennett Furlow

Fitna, which means “discord” in Arabic, is the title of a short film by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. Wilders is an outspoken critic of Islam and of Muslim immigration to the Netherlands. This film was inspired by the murder of film maker Theo van Gogh and the Danish cartoons controversy.

The film is an attempt to show how Islam is inherently violent, and that the Qur’an advocates murder, terrorism and the subjugation of women. Fitna is divided into sections, each of which begins with a quote from a sura. The images that follow are meant as evidence of Islam’s radically violent nature. Images in the film include planes hitting the World Trade Center on 9/11, pictures from the London and Madrid bombings and U.S. soldiers being dragged through the streets of Somalia, inter-spliced with speeches from Imams advocating violent acts against the enemies of Islam as well as Jews. The film addresses the Netherlands specifically by showing images of the Muhammad cartoons and newspaper headlines about the death of Theo van Gogh and death threats against Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Wilders himself. Finally the film offers a glimpse of the future under Islam or as Wilders puts it “under the spell of Islam.” This includes women in burqas, homosexuals being rounded up and executed, children covered in blood, and female circumcision. Wilders compares Islam to Nazism and claims that “Islam…seeks to destroy our Western civilization.”

Wilders’ film is clearly sensationalistic. Much like the Danish cartoons and Theo van Gogh’s film Submission, Fitna is designed to create controversy. The splicing together of sound bites and brief video clips is far from an intellectually serious way of criticizing a religion or any group for that matter. But clearly engaging in a true discussion about Islam and its role in the world or in the Netherlands specifically is not Wilders goal. Instead he is interested in nothing more than the attention that comes from a film such as this.

Additionally, Wilders makes blanket statements about Islam as a whole. He sees Islam itself as the threat, not any one particular aspect of the religion.

The idea of cherry-picking the most inflammatory statements and showing them without any context is disingenuous to say the least. However, it appears as if he has taken images of the Shi’a festival of Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of Husayn, and uses those images to express the threat of Islam with regard to children. This is simply intellectually dishonest. Furthermore this method of cherry-picking clips in order to portray Islam in a negative light could be used to portray any religious, ethnic, or political group negatively.

Engaging Muslims in a serious debate about perceived controversial aspects of their religious doctrine or their role in Danish society is a perfectly acceptable and even laudable enterprise. Fitna is not that. This film has the stench of an egomaniacal agenda all over it. Wilders is appealing to the minority who already share his views, while getting worldwide attention. At my most cynical, I think it is possible that Wilders intended for this film to actually produce violence on behalf of Muslims. If it had, he could easily make the claim that he was right and Muslims are opposed to basic freedoms such as freedom of expression. Thankfully, Muslims did not take the bait and have chosen instead to simply speak out against the film or ignore it all together.