Monday, March 31, 2008

Controversial Fitna and The Boycott on Dutch


Worldfutures.info published Mahathir: Boycott Dutch products but what not Coca Cola . Malaysia Today republished it with comments from its readers. Malaysiakini should have its own entry as well.

Accordingly, our ex-Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir called for a boycott on Dutch / Netherlands products in protest over the film titled Fitna .

For those not in the know, Fitna is created by Dutch legislator Geert Wilders. It is a 15 minutes short movie that cited verses from Quran, matching them with video clips of shocking statements from radical clerics. Furthermore, among the images being displayed are the Sept 11 attack on the United States, the 2004 commuter train bombings in Spain and the murder later that year of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh on an Amsterdam street. Related controversial headlines of newspaper cuttings from European nations are in the film as well.

For more information on the movie, please visit the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitna_(film) in wikipedia.

It is not a movie for the faint-hearted and certainly it does not do justice for Islam as a possible religion of peace. However, bear in mind that the images and speeches are real. It should not be dismissed that certain Dutch people may be concerned with what is happening around the world concerning certain (not all) practitioners of Islam.

I think calling for boycott of this movie and Dutch products will not bring in any good results. It is as if subconsciously "indirectly" giving support to the film. I personally think it is not the problem with the religion Islam. It is the actions of certain (not all) Muslims that should not be agreed upon.

I think the Muslims should condemn this movie and casting it as a misrepresentation of Islam. Certain people preaching in the video who called for any form of violence should be condemned as well.

I think using this method, the religion's way can be made to be understood better.

In my opinion, any form of religion has its share of violent content and means to justify or achieve certain ends. If you choose peace, you get peace. Violence begets violence.

It is not only Malaysia that needs change. The method of Muslims on handling such criticism should change as well. It may be a long journey but perhaps it is high time to start now.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I think so too. Just that you see Moslems jumping up and down and burning flags and shouting for blood of the perpetrators of Islam, but they always failed to raise the same ruckus when their own makes statements or actions that causes such retaliation by non moslems in the first place. Self censure ? And they always say Islam bashers do not get to the "roots" of the problem when they so criticise them. They always react when provoked, so predictable.

mandela said...

Why is it the with all the killings that have been happening, i.e, Bali bombing, 911, Train Bombing, Bus Bombing, McD's Bombing, etc., no muslim country did any sort of boycott or demonstration towards the perpertrator's country??? These people have been killing innocent people in the name of Allah! Are they tarnishing Gods name and using His/Her name at their wimps and fancies? If so, shouldn't the rest of the muslim community stand up against that? What Geert Wilders did is basically a representation of how many non-muslim thinks about Islam after all these happenings. Can we really blame him and the rest of them for thinking this way? What about the translation of the Quran, are they true? Has it not been traslated correctly and been misunderstood? I truely hope so... Because I would be truly worried if a religion condones killings of that such... Do enlighten the others...

Anonymous said...

To me this is a natural process that will eventually lead to more and more people starting to get very curious about islam.

The more they (the enemies of islam) plotted against islam the more people will revert to Islam.

Now many European countries is seeing islam as the second largest religion. So is United States of America. After the 9/11, more and more white coloured people starting to embrace the religion of Islam.

The "fitna" can now be seen as how desperate they are in trying to stop more people from accepting islam.

Please do look at UMNO as good muslims. I think we better look at them as anti-Muslim. People have grossly misunderstood Islam because of them.

I do not think they want islam as it is. They even have introduced a new version of Islam called Hadhari. (As if the teaching revealed to the prophet Muhammad (SAW) is not sufficient and has many flaws in it. This is a proof of their disrespect for the Holy Prophet and their poor belief in the God Almighty and his prophet).