G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
This hate-filled piece of propaganda should fade into obscurity, where it
belongs.
By Michael Kwiatkowski
Created Mar 29 2008 - 5:32pm
Der Spiegel reports [1].
It is little more than a makeshift collage, but it contains a horror show
of images meant to distort Islam. Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders
has launched his long-awaited video screed criticizing the Koran. Criticism
is mounting.
And rightly so. The video, a highly offensive sack of bile, opens with a
passage from the Quran (the Muslim bible) immediately followed by footage of
the September 11, 2001 attacks on America. The exercise in deception and
outright anti-Muslim bigotry deteriorates from there.
The film begins with an image that every Muslim in the world and many
others are likely to recognize immediately: the controversial caricature of
Mohammed wearing a bomb as a turban. The publication of this and similar
drawings in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 triggered
unrest in the Arab world.
The cartoonist who drew the caricature, Kurt Westergaard, himself the
target of planned attacks recently, promptly protested against its use in
the Wilders video. "The drawing was created in a certain context,"
Westergaard said, adding that Wilders could "simply not use it. This is not
a question of free speech, but of copyrights." Westergaard told the paper
that he wants the Danish association of journalists to take action against
the copyright violation.
Wilders has animated the bomb fuse on Mohammad's head, allowing it to burn
up. Then the image is faded out and followed by a sura from the Koran
calling Muslims to fight the infidels. The airplanes that crashed into the
World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 appear through the lettering, followed
by images of people jumping from the burning towers, screaming desperately.
The film continues in this suggestive mode: with images of the Madrid
train bombings, of imams calling for global dominance, with a video showing
the beheading of a Western hostage and with statistics on the rapidly
growing number of Muslims living in the Netherlands.
The anti-Islam video was eventually pulled from LiveLeak.com, after the site
was flooded with criticism ranging from mere declarations of offense to what
the administrators describe as threats. Given their willingness to post
Wilders' propaganda, their claims of being threatened are debatable.
The level of support gained from right-wing extremists, however, may be more
appalling than the propaganda film itself. (One troll posted a link [2] at
my own discussion forum, hoping to offend as many viewers as possible before
I shut him down.)
Der Spiegel was not kind in its own assessment [3] of the propaganda film:
Fitna seems like an anticlimax. It goes no further than making suggestive
comments: the suggestion that the Koran is the source of all the violence in
the world; the suggestion that Islam is a threat to everyone's freedom, like
Hitler and Stalin. But in Fitna, the Koran is not destroyed and the bomb in
the prophet's turban, drawn by the Danish cartoonist, doesn't quite explode.
Has Wilders been successful in giving an example of his political and
artistic skills with Fitna? Certainly not when it comes to his artistic
capacity. Wilders doesn't have enough creative talent and is sloppy in his
approach.
This might still prove a problem and he will probably have to explain
himself before the courts. For example he used material from the Danish
cartoonist without asking permission and wrongly said a photograph of a
rapper was the murderer of film-maker Theo van Gogh. And he has dragged
others along with him - proof of a stunning lack of responsibility. The
Dutch public prosecution department is also looking into whether Fitna
incites hatred in the legal sense.
According to the review, Wilders' goal may have had less to do with proving
anything than in trying to gain attention by way of censorship -- creating a
backlash of criticism he hopes to manipulate so as to "prove" a point about
the supposed intolerance of his critics.
Both left and right-wing politicians have dismissed the film as old hat.
They saw 'nothing new' in the footage. But such comments show a
misunderstanding of Wilders' political goal. He doesn't want to bring new
insights or promote dialogue. Fitna is just a weapon in his propaganda war.
His politics stand or fall with the concept of the 'self-fulfilling
prophecy'. In this sense Wilders hasn't done himself or the citizens of the
Netherlands a service. And that too must be said in public.
If this vile display of bigotry fails to garner the critical backlash
Wilders hopes it will, that is a victory for decent folk everywhere.
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
belongs.
By Michael Kwiatkowski
Created Mar 29 2008 - 5:32pm
Der Spiegel reports [1].
It is little more than a makeshift collage, but it contains a horror show
of images meant to distort Islam. Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders
has launched his long-awaited video screed criticizing the Koran. Criticism
is mounting.
And rightly so. The video, a highly offensive sack of bile, opens with a
passage from the Quran (the Muslim bible) immediately followed by footage of
the September 11, 2001 attacks on America. The exercise in deception and
outright anti-Muslim bigotry deteriorates from there.
The film begins with an image that every Muslim in the world and many
others are likely to recognize immediately: the controversial caricature of
Mohammed wearing a bomb as a turban. The publication of this and similar
drawings in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 triggered
unrest in the Arab world.
The cartoonist who drew the caricature, Kurt Westergaard, himself the
target of planned attacks recently, promptly protested against its use in
the Wilders video. "The drawing was created in a certain context,"
Westergaard said, adding that Wilders could "simply not use it. This is not
a question of free speech, but of copyrights." Westergaard told the paper
that he wants the Danish association of journalists to take action against
the copyright violation.
Wilders has animated the bomb fuse on Mohammad's head, allowing it to burn
up. Then the image is faded out and followed by a sura from the Koran
calling Muslims to fight the infidels. The airplanes that crashed into the
World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 appear through the lettering, followed
by images of people jumping from the burning towers, screaming desperately.
The film continues in this suggestive mode: with images of the Madrid
train bombings, of imams calling for global dominance, with a video showing
the beheading of a Western hostage and with statistics on the rapidly
growing number of Muslims living in the Netherlands.
The anti-Islam video was eventually pulled from LiveLeak.com, after the site
was flooded with criticism ranging from mere declarations of offense to what
the administrators describe as threats. Given their willingness to post
Wilders' propaganda, their claims of being threatened are debatable.
The level of support gained from right-wing extremists, however, may be more
appalling than the propaganda film itself. (One troll posted a link [2] at
my own discussion forum, hoping to offend as many viewers as possible before
I shut him down.)
Der Spiegel was not kind in its own assessment [3] of the propaganda film:
Fitna seems like an anticlimax. It goes no further than making suggestive
comments: the suggestion that the Koran is the source of all the violence in
the world; the suggestion that Islam is a threat to everyone's freedom, like
Hitler and Stalin. But in Fitna, the Koran is not destroyed and the bomb in
the prophet's turban, drawn by the Danish cartoonist, doesn't quite explode.
Has Wilders been successful in giving an example of his political and
artistic skills with Fitna? Certainly not when it comes to his artistic
capacity. Wilders doesn't have enough creative talent and is sloppy in his
approach.
This might still prove a problem and he will probably have to explain
himself before the courts. For example he used material from the Danish
cartoonist without asking permission and wrongly said a photograph of a
rapper was the murderer of film-maker Theo van Gogh. And he has dragged
others along with him - proof of a stunning lack of responsibility. The
Dutch public prosecution department is also looking into whether Fitna
incites hatred in the legal sense.
According to the review, Wilders' goal may have had less to do with proving
anything than in trying to gain attention by way of censorship -- creating a
backlash of criticism he hopes to manipulate so as to "prove" a point about
the supposed intolerance of his critics.
Both left and right-wing politicians have dismissed the film as old hat.
They saw 'nothing new' in the footage. But such comments show a
misunderstanding of Wilders' political goal. He doesn't want to bring new
insights or promote dialogue. Fitna is just a weapon in his propaganda war.
His politics stand or fall with the concept of the 'self-fulfilling
prophecy'. In this sense Wilders hasn't done himself or the citizens of the
Netherlands a service. And that too must be said in public.
If this vile display of bigotry fails to garner the critical backlash
Wilders hopes it will, that is a victory for decent folk everywhere.
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
