Europe and the Film Culture

Despite the speculated aggressive reactions, the film “Fitna” was released on the Internet on March 27, 2008. The producer, director and writer of the film is Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician. He is the member of the Tweede Kamer (Dutch House of Representatives) and the Leader of the conservative Party for Freedom. The movie reveals his views on Islam, Muslims and Quran.

Interestingly, the Roman Catholic Geert, has toured Israel about 40 times in the past 25 years. He has always supported Israel and maligned countries he understands as enemies of Israel. In 2003 he stated “The past years I have visited many interesting countries, from Tunisia to Turkey and from Cyprus to Iran, but nowhere I have that special feeling of solidarity that I always get if I set foot on the Israeli Ben Gurion Airport.". He has affirmed his close connections to the Mossad. In 2005 he even proposed to open an Administrative Detention in the Netherlands. Administrative Detention in Israel is somewhat similar to the “Guantanamo Bay detention camp” which detains a person, who is deemed to be a threat to the public, without trial. De facto Muslims.

The UN Chief strongly condemned the release of the film online, though the film had been discussed in the Dutch media since November 27, 2007. One wonders the competencies of the “Information Networks” of the Chief.

A 26-year-old Pakistani man arrested last month on terrorism suspicions was released by the Dutch authorities on April 02, 2008. He was arrested on 14 March in the southern city of Breda. At the time, prosecutors said he was believed to belong to a cell of Islamic extremists linked to an alleged foiled suicide attack in Barcelona. However, they say he will be deported as an ''undesirable alien''. Why is he tagged an undesirable alien though he is not (or not proved to be) connected to any extremism??

Ensuing the film “Fitna”, another Dutch politician had planned the release of his anti-Muslim film "The Life of Mohammed", only to be canceled after intense objections from the Dutch government. This time around the mortal happens to be Ehsan Jami. An Ex-Muslim and Ex- Iran citizen. Jami founded the Central Committee for Ex-Muslims in 2007 aiming to support apostates of Islam. He is a member of the city council of Leidschendam-Voorburg as an independent member. Readers, who might be wondering that the Dutch authorities have after all considered the cries of the aggrieved, can understand this “favor” by the fact that the Dutch authorities have not raised objections over the release of the film because it shall hurt the sentiments of Muslims over the world. Instead, the Minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin highlighted that the release of the film “would split the Dutch community”.

The International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations, is based in The Hague, Netherlands. Is it wise to advice the Muslim member states of the UN to file a suit against Netherlands?