Thoughts and Observations

It’s another typical Dutch sunday with grey skies and on-and-off raining. Not much seems to be going on around here (in the area I mean, because there’s a crapload of things going on with this little country).

There is the political and social outflow of “Fitna – The Movie” released by Dutch politician Geert Wilders. It was broadcasted on LiveLeak.com for a little over a day, and then taken down due to the LiveLeak employees being threatened. Personally I thought the movie, in a cinematic way, was really bad. However, though the images themselves were shocking and disgusting (terrorist attacks, decapitations, bombings, etc.) it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. So to say that it is highly offensive, I didn’t think of it that way. However, the movie is highly suggestive and generalizes all people in the Muslim religion and associates them all with violence and terrorism. And the way he links passages from the Koran with violence suggests that the Koran propagates violence.

Every sane-thinking person knows that this is only the case if someone wants it too. One could argue the Bible advocates violence as well. It’s all in the eyes of the beholder. And most Muslims are kind people. Personally I do not always agree with or understand their views, but I accept and respect they have different views. I do understand that there’s a lot of wariness and sometimes even fear among Dutch people as there absolutely is  a problem with integration and the ‘view on the streets’ has changed. I don’t necessarily see it as a bad thing personally, but it’s a (new) development and people have to get used to it. A movie like Fitna’s not gonna help, it just divides people, at a time where we should all stand together and work together to make this a better world for everyone, regardless of race, religion, gender, age, etc. we belong to.

I hardly ever agree with Wilders’ views. He talks about Islamic terrorism, I speak of terrorism. It’s not necessarily tied to one religion or another. There are extremists in all religions and worldviews, etc. But the point is that they are an extremist group within a much larger group, and the larger group, even though they might share the same religion or the same something, they ARE NOT THE SAME. Most of those people are just as frightened of the violence and disgusted by terrorism.

It’s an interesting discussion, and I’m sure many people aren’t gonna agree with me, and another group of people might agree with me. It’s okay, whatever they believe, different opinions are always good, and makes that we can see things from different perspectives. Personally, I do believe that it’s always better to stand together than to divide.

I’m really sad that several countries (Jordan, Iran, Pakistan & Indonesia among others, especially Jordan) are taking steps towards boycotting the Netherlands. I understand they denounce the movie and that they believe it’s wrong and all that kinda stuff. I can’t blame them for that. But by reacting so strongly to it instead of opening dialogue and keep the discussion alive, they are adding to the image that the movie’s presenting. Besides, it’s NOT the Netherlands point of view, it’s the point of view of one man with too much hair and his followers. The Dutch government denounced the movie and is even looking to see if legal steps can be made. But there is such a thing as freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of opinion. And even though a lot of the things portrayed in the movie are tasteless and out of context, these freedoms have to be looked at too.

I hope that the diplomatic side can be worked out and resolved fairly quickly, but the discussion should be kept alive, because out of the discussion, new ideas can be born to make things better, and prevent this stuff from happening again. Because just that someone feels the need to make a movie like this, tells us there IS a problem. There is fear, and there is unawareness, and there is ignorance and naivity. A discussion will make us understand more of both sides and can bring us all closer together. Which I sincerely hope for.