fitna

i downloaded 'fitna', the controversial movie about islam written by a dutch politician, geert wilders. it's 16 minutes long, and it's easy to say that it is nothing more than a sensationalist propaganda movie. in this short film, he "highlights" 5 verses from various surahs (chapters) in the qur'an whose english translation lend them toward violence against non-muslims. i think the geert wilders, along with many others in the western world, is plainly muslim-phobic. the old testament bible speaks of similar actions, to rise up against those who don't believe in the christian god. i won't go too far into that because i've not yet read enough of the bible to not saying something stupid. that is why i'm reading the bible AND qur'an now, to learn about what christianity and islam REALLY stand for, instead of what people THINK they stand for.

i'm living in a muslim country, and i'm not afraid. these people aren't aiming to hurt westerners. there is no jihad. they are people, same as me: going to work, eating, having fun, living. no muslims here have tried to convert me. i've tried to engage in intelligent conversations about their religion because i know very little about it and am interested in learning more, but these conversations are typically fruitless, not because of ignorance, but due more to the language barrier. this movie shows one extreme of the muslim religion, the fundamentalists, the radicals. they are the minority that we know of because they make headlines. since those are the only way we know of islam, it's generalized that all muslims must be this way. christianity has this same type of fanaticism with our pat robertson's and jerry falwell's, the westboro baptist church. i would truly like to see a reciprocal movie made about these fundamentalist christians. both movies would be skewed in the manner that IS the definition of propaganda, but then watch the christians defend themselves with "we're not ALL like that" arguments that i fear they wouldn't find applicable to the muslims. people are hard-wired into an "us vs. them" mentality: family vs. strangers, lovers vs. friends, protestant vs. catholic. it's a dangerous and hurtful thing that we need to consciously try to change.

wilders believes he made a movie to open the eyes of the world to islam, where he only promotes the same hate that he fears they have for him (and i'm sure, even the peace-loving muslims are offended now). he's carelessly poured salt in an already excruciating wound, all based on ignorance and fear. i hope i'm not coming off as too new-agey, but we're all people on the same planet trying to be as happy as possible and make babies so they can be happy someday. i'm hoping that people who see this movie don't take it as a documentary on the muslim culture. still, i'm afraid too many will.

you can DL it from this site if you haven't seen it, and go here (yeah i know it's wikipedia, and this is a hot topic so beware graffiti) to read more about it. let me know what you think.