[roberto]

Dutch MP picks ‘Fitna’ as title for controversial Islam film


(EUX.TV) – ‘Fitna’ has been choosen as the name of the controversial and potentially explosive anti-Islam film that will be released next month by Dutch MP Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch freedom party PVV.

The title is the islamic word for ‘evil’, said Wilders, whose party holds nine of the 150 seats in the Dutch parliament, in an interview published at the weekend.

According to Wikipedia, ‘fitna’ is “generally regarded as very difficult to translate but at the same time is considered to be an all-encompassing word referring to schism, secession, upheaval and anarchy at once.”

The title “refers to situations where the faith of muslims is tested,” said Wilders in an interview with GPD newspapers.

“I insisted on using a phrase that’s also found in the Koran. Islam and the Koran are my ordeal. I use the term in an inverse sense… For me the poisonous Koran is fitna.”

Wilders, who has been living under police protection since 2004, last month suggested the Dutch government should ban the Koran because he feels it is a book that spreads a pernicious doctrine, just as Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’.

The 15-minute movie will air in March and will end with an animated cartoon of the prophet Mohammed, Wilders said.

The movie aims to demonstrate that “Islam can cost us our freedom if we do not act against it,” said Wilders.

Some Dutch media have suggested that end will show Wilders burning a copy of the Koran.

Fearing an international backlash against the Netherlands, the Dutch government already has instructed its embassies worldwide on how to act after the movie has been released.

Security at Dutch embassies in the Middle East is to be increased, while the office of the Dutch coordinator against terrorism has advised Wilders to go into hiding abroad after the movie has been released.

Security experts from the Netherlands are already investigating statements about Wilders made last month in the European Parliament in Strasbourg by the Grand Mufti of Syria. The mufti told Dutch journalists there that it would be the Dutch politician’s responsibility if violence and bloodshed follow the release of the movie.

“It’s the responsibility of the people of the Netherlands to stop him,” the Mufti said, according to the ANP news agency.

While addressing the parliament because of the ‘Year of Intercultural Dialogue’, the mufti warned Europeans “not to abuse” free speech to criticize Islam.

The Danish blog Snaphanen, which reported this comment last month, said this comment has been deliberatelly left out of the official EU reports from his speech.

In 2005, tens of thousands took to the streets in Muslim countries to protest cartoons depicting Mohammed that were printed in Danish newspapers. Many Muslim countries also halted imports of products made in Denmark.

-- Raymond Frenken, From the EUX.TV newsroom news@eux.tv



EUX.TV - Dutch MP picks ‘Fitna’ as title for controversial Islam film