“Offending the masses is not a fundamental right” January 29, 2008

Geert Wilders, Dutch parliamentarian for the very right-wing Freedom Party (one of whose slogans is “less tax and less Islam”), has been causing a stir as of late with his new anti-Islam film which has as one of its climaxes a copy of the Qur’an being burned. Wilders, who in February 2007 called upon Dutch Muslims to “tear out half the pages of the Quran and throw them away”, plans on burning (or tearing up) the Muslim holy book as evidence of his opinion that the Qur’an is a “fascist” document, calling Islam “an inspiration for murder”.

The 10-15 minute anti-Quran film, scheduled to air in March (though Wilders has yet to find a broadcaster, he pledged to release it on the Internet if he can not find a media outlet), “has already prompted the government to alert Dutch cities to prepare for possible violent reactions and warn embassies in Islamic countries”, inciting ire from Syria to Singapore.

Dutch Muslims are “appealing for calm”, trying to “neutralize” the potentially negative effects of the film, including any violence or boycotts, reminding Wilders that they, too, were Dutch citizens:

Mohamed Rabbae’s group [the Dutch National Moroccan Council], which he said represents the majority of the more than 850,000 Muslims living in this nation of 16.3 million, also plans to call on the Muslim world to react peacefully if and when the film is broadcast, and not to boycott Dutch products.

“We want to make clear that the Netherlands is not just the country of one man, but also of the Muslims who live here,” he said. “Anything that hurts the Netherlands also hurts us.”

Appeals to Geert Wilders to refrain from making the film got this statement in reply:

“That a 10-minute film that’s never been shown may lead to riots, boycotts and other bad things, says everything about the nature of Islam,” said Wilders in an open letter Thursday. “Nothing about me.”

Reading these things incites feelings much like the title of this Somalian op-ed piece from Garowe Online: offending the masses is not a fundamental right. The “Sunday Editorial” piece voices the question I’m sure many people feel when dealing with these neo-conservative extremists — when did it become so ok, so accepted, and so in vogue to offend so many hundreds of millions of people?

Although no one (or very few people) has seen this film yet, the media uproar has created a suspenseful atmosphere, with many Western publications expecting a violent response from the Islamic world, as if this is the “natural” reaction to be expected from Muslims…[Wilders] is a man who has called the Qur’an “a fascist book” and expects Muslims to abandon their religion if they wish to live in the Netherlands…

The theme of the MP Wilders’ film is to associate growing unrest and anger across the Islamic world to the Qur’an, a Divine Revelation that preaches the values of peace, justice and mercy. Of course, the vast majority of Muslims will react with anger to anyone who disrespects the Word of Allah. But that is precisely MP Wilders’ unstated goal; he understands his blasphemous rhetoric (now on film) might lead to a violent response, but therein is his primary objective. He can then point at the violence his insensitive and intolerant work has created and tell the Dutch people that the Qur’an engenders violence.

The Qur’an is such a Holy Book that Muslims are willing to fight for it and defend it. It is the foundation of a world religion, with more than 1.5 billion adherents across the globe. If MP Wilders is willing to offend 1.5 billion people in defense of the “freedom of expression,” then is there any surprise that the offended people want to defend their own belief system?

What the world needs today, perhaps more than ever, is for all groups to realize that we are all humans who must learn to coexist peacefully in this limited world of ours.

Precisely. And firmly entrenched in the camp against co-existence, we find Geert Wilders and all others of his ilk, determined to spread bigotry in the guise of self-preservation. Here you can find Wilders giving his opinions to FOXNews, speaking about what he termed “the retarded Islamic culture”:

Being this offensive and ignorant is not a fundamental right to be enjoyed and cherished. On the contrary, it is a symptom of an illness begging to be cured.

May hatred and division be replaced by coexistence and unity, speedily in our days, throughout Europe, en ook in Nederland.