Four Stars For Fitna - But Not Five
I WATCHED Geert Wilders' film on violence and Islam yesterday. The Dutch politician and his mystery collaborator, the Scarlet Pimpernel, have produced a work that manages to be both instructively chilling and beautifully crafted. The score, effects, pace and structure of Fitna are all just about faultless for a short film whose theme is meant to linger in the mind for ongoing contemplation. Andrew Bolt, amongst many others, has posted the video link and various commentaries. (As have Saint and Catallaxy's Skepticlawyer). Bolt carefully balances an endorsement of liberty and free speech with the qualification that, notwithstanding Wilders' concerns, millions of Muslims live in Europe and do no harm to anybody. That is certainly true but it misses the point entirely. Risking a Godwin's Law rebuttal, let it not be forgotten that throughout the pre-war 1930s, neither did most Germans.
As most historians agree, National Socialism went from strength to strength not only by what its practitioners did but what its observers chose not to do. Peter Hoekstra is the Dutch-born ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. His own review of Wilders' film - and the politics and philosophical arguments surrounding it - is one of the best currently online. He points out that a German court decided last year that "a German Muslim man had the right to beat his wife, as this was permitted under Shariah." More important than that travesty - and commensurate ones of the Rowan Williams variety - is the Muslim world's silence about its problem with violence generally and anti-semitism especially. James Taranto today points to this story of the Saudi Shoura Council Chairman seemingly referring to sexual assault as "traditional Muslim behavior."
Islam, then, has something more serious than a PR problem. It is the sick man of world religion. Arguing that the majority of Muslims are "moderate" is irrelevant if followers of Islam and their representatives have little or nothing to say against terrorism or in favour of non violent responses to all of the figures popularly loathed in the Ummah Wahida: Salman Rusdie, Theo van Gogh, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Danish cartoonists and now Geert Wilders. Returning to the film itself, I said its production values were impressive and alluring - which they are. The methodology, however, is simply a high-art representation of the standard polemical device of quoting from the Koran and linking the words to violent events. Not original. Plus, a film on what ails Europe should emphasise native anti-Christianity and demographic decline. Wilders, married with no children, addresses neither.
Update: Concerned about Wilders? Spare a thought for Ehsan Jami.
As most historians agree, National Socialism went from strength to strength not only by what its practitioners did but what its observers chose not to do. Peter Hoekstra is the Dutch-born ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. His own review of Wilders' film - and the politics and philosophical arguments surrounding it - is one of the best currently online. He points out that a German court decided last year that "a German Muslim man had the right to beat his wife, as this was permitted under Shariah." More important than that travesty - and commensurate ones of the Rowan Williams variety - is the Muslim world's silence about its problem with violence generally and anti-semitism especially. James Taranto today points to this story of the Saudi Shoura Council Chairman seemingly referring to sexual assault as "traditional Muslim behavior."
Islam, then, has something more serious than a PR problem. It is the sick man of world religion. Arguing that the majority of Muslims are "moderate" is irrelevant if followers of Islam and their representatives have little or nothing to say against terrorism or in favour of non violent responses to all of the figures popularly loathed in the Ummah Wahida: Salman Rusdie, Theo van Gogh, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Danish cartoonists and now Geert Wilders. Returning to the film itself, I said its production values were impressive and alluring - which they are. The methodology, however, is simply a high-art representation of the standard polemical device of quoting from the Koran and linking the words to violent events. Not original. Plus, a film on what ails Europe should emphasise native anti-Christianity and demographic decline. Wilders, married with no children, addresses neither.
Update: Concerned about Wilders? Spare a thought for Ehsan Jami.
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