Danish Affairs

“Geert Wilders is a hero of our time”, Ibn Warraq in Spiegel Online. [in German]

“Man kann nur hoffen, dass Geert Wilders’ Film ein großes Echo im Westen findet. Dort hat die Mehrheit immer noch nicht erkannt, dass die Freiheit, die sie für selbstverständlich hält, ständig bewacht werden muss. Dass ihre unpolitische Sicht auf das Leben unverantwortlich ist und sie für Freiheiten kämpfen müssen, die Tag für Tag von denjenigen bedroht werden, die allen von uns eine totalitäre Ideologie aufdrängen wollen.”

Excerpt (roughly translated by Danish Affairs):

“We can only hope, that Geert Wilders´film will cause a large echo in the West. Where the majority still haven´t realized, that the freedom, they take for granted, always must be guarded. That their apolitical view of life is irresponsible, and that they must fight for freedoms, that are beeing threatened day after day, by those who want to pull upon us a totalitarian ideology.”

“Wilders sollte als mutiges Individuum gefeiert werden - ein Held unserer Zeit - der es wagte, gegen den Islamofaschismus aufzustehen.”

Excerpt (roughly translated by Danish Affairs):

“Wilders should be celebrated as a brave individual - a hero of our time - who dared to protest against the Islamofascism.”

Hat tip: Snaphanen

Fjordman Reviews Geert Wilders´islam-critical film “Fitna” at Gates Of Vienna:

“I liked it. It is impressive how much they managed to squeeze into just 15 minutes. I notice several of the comments at Jihad Watch say Geert Wilders could have made it worse. Yes, he could. He left out quite a few things, but what he kept was authentic and bad enough…”

Read the brief review at Gates Of Vienna

Mohamed-drawer Kurt Westergaard is not happy with Geert Wilders´ “misuse” of his famous drawing in the movie ‘Fitna’.

But who is misusing who? And if this is misuse, then how do we use a Mohamed drawing properly?

Kurt Westergaard:

“My cartoon has been misused again. It has been pulled from its original context and set in a completely different one”

“It is a drawing aimed specifically against Islamic terror that uses interpretations of the Koran and Islam as spiritual ammunition,” Westergaard said.

“Wilders has not asked me for permission, so it is simply a case of violation of copyright rules,” Expatica.com

Kurt Westergaard has described himself as a “cultural Christian, a culture-liberal Atheist“.

The culture-liberal atheist´s reactions to the recent development of the Mohamed crisis tend to a surprisingly sympathetic, almost regretful view upon the religion Islam.

That the drawing wasn´t meant as a critique of Islam as such, and his strong emphasising of the context rest on the premises that clear distinctions between islamism and Islam, between Islam as religion and Islam as a political ideology do exist are are self explanatory.

The cartoonist thereby walks away from the drawing desk and is now navigating the muddy waters of vaguely defined concepts of islamic terror, islamism, religious fundamentalism, moderate Islam etc.

Using a copyright lawsuit the ‘islamic-terror-critic’ (not to be confused with ‘islam-critic’) cartoonist is re-branding himself by criticising what he calls “radical right-wing forces”.

According to Jyllands-Posten March 28th Westergaard´s lawyer is currently trying to close down the website SIAD.dk (Stop Islamiseringen Af Danmark). SIAD has made use of parts of KW´s Mohamed drawing during a recent protest demonstration against Sharia loans. SIADs website also hosts the Fitna movie.

The Danish Union Of Journalist (DUJ) supports Westergaard´s case and DUJ is preparing a lawsuit against Geert Wilders.

To defend a drawers copyright is understandable and reasonable. But on the other hand it is quite ironic that a journalist union is opposing what essentially is a common interest; a struggle for freedom of speech, which makes copyright issues a completely irrelevant detail.

Grave abuse of Danish cartoon in Dutch film

The Danish Union of Journalists (DUJ) and Kurt Westergaard take vigorous exception to the use of Westergaard’s drawing in the Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ film. DUJ intends to take legal action against the politician for grave violation of Westergaard’s author’s right (copyright). It was never the intention of Kurt Westergaard that his drawing should be used in the manner and context it is used in the film “Fitna” by the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Therefore, DUJ is now taking the first steps towards filing suit against the politician for his unauthorized abuse of the Danish drawing.

DUJ Press release in english (opens PDF)

A press release from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemns Geert Wilders´Islam-critical film ‘Fitna’.

UN thereby acknowledges state censorship to protect the religion of Islam against criticism. UN has once again lost its trustworthiness and cannot be relied on as a protector of human rights.

To postulate that this is only about a conflict between small minorities of extremists - and at the same time condemning a 15 min. footage of quranic hate-speech is an intellectually dishonest stance, a treason against fundamental western values and the western and non-western victims of Islam. It is an obvious attempt to kill the messenger of an inconvenient truth.

Following is the text of the statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the film Fitna:

I condemn, in the strongest terms, the airing of Geert Wilders’ offensively anti-Islamic film. There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free expression is not at stake here. I acknowledge the efforts of the Government of the Netherlands to stop the broadcast of this film, and appeal for calm to those understandably offended by it. Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility.

The United Nations is the centre of the world’s efforts to advance mutual respect, understanding and dialogue. We must also recognize that the real fault line is not between Muslim and Western societies, as some would have us believe, but between small minorities of extremists on different sides with a vested interest in stirring hostility and conflict. UN

NETHERLANDS. New dutch anti-Islam film to be released April 20th by Dutch-Iranian politician Ehsan Jami. The new movie is an animated story about Mohammad as a child, and the movie seems to have the potential for keeping a lot of protesters occupied with flag burning and embassy raids for a long time.

The anti-Islam film announced by Ehsan Jami last year is an animated film that will be released on 20 April, Jami said Wednesday evening on current affairs programme Netwerk.

Jami’s production is bound to come up against opposition. The Contact body for Muslims and the Government has already announced it will take legal steps against the film.

Netwerk showed a drawing from the film, which is entitled The Life of Mohammed. The drawing shows the prophet Mohammed in the company of his 9-year-old wife Aisa. The prophet is on his way to a mosque to deflower his bride.

Themoviefitna.com

Ehsan Jami was interviewed by Weekendavisen last year (in danish).

Geert Wilders´movie about the Quran, Fitna has finally been released.

Watch Fitna at RuTube (Hat tip: Hodja)

Themoviefitna.com

Download Fitna (English version) at Pirate Bay (Movie size 38 MB.)

Download Fitna (Dutch version) at Rapidshare

Danish, German, and Swedish versions: Gates of Vienna:  A Rosetta Stone for “Fitna”

Press release from Network Solutions regarding their customer Geert Wilders. Hosting providers interfering with customer ´s web content is always somewhat suspect. The legal department of Network Solutions must have worked hard to produce this text - trying to balance between explicit political condemnation and apolitical corporate neutrality. Hopefully Geert Wilders get his money back and find a way to set up his own server independent of commercial (and political) interests.

Network Solutions’ Statement Regarding the Suspension of Fitnathemovie.com

Herndon, VA — March 24, 2008 — Over the last month, Network Solutions received a number of complaints regarding the website FITNATHEMOVIE.COM. At the same time, our hosting customer for this site also made several public comments regarding their plans for the use of this site. In response to the complaints and the customer’s public comments, Network Solutions has made repeated requests to discuss the matter with our customer. We have also requested to review the planned content prior to it being loaded onto the site to determine whether the content violates Network Solutions’ Acceptable Use Policy. We are still waiting to hear from our customer. In the interim, we have temporarily suspended the site.

During this suspension, the customer has full access to the site. If the customer provides Network Solutions with the content and it is determined that the content does not violate the Acceptable Use Policy, then the customer will be permitted to post the content. However, if it does violate our policy, then the customer is free to post the content using another number of other avenues, but not with Network Solutions.

Network Solutions is by no means taking any action to limit freedom of speech or to preemptively censor content. Our company also does not proactively police the content of our customers’ sites. If a complaint is received, however, we do conduct a review to determine whether the site’s content violates our company’s Acceptable Use Policy.

Update: 

To download Fitna - please visit Fitna movie released

Update: Part 1-12 of “Islam, what the west needs to know” by mistake supposed to be Geert Wilders´movie Fitna are avaliable at Youtube.

Part 1:

This post will be updated with new working links and information about the real Fitna movie (if and when possible).

Geert Wilders´site for the movie Fitna www.fitnathemovie.com has been suspended by the hosting provider Network Solutions (CBA News).

The URL http://www.fitnathemovie.co.uk/ seems to be a hoax.

Geert Wilders was interviewed by danish television yesterday about his movie ‘Fitna’.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen responded with a press release strongly opposing Wilders´anti-islamic views. Not all intellectual defenders of western values and freedom rights seem to be compatible with the agenda of wannabe-european-president Mr. Fogh.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has promoted freedom of speech on a number of occasions. And his party (Venstre) has honoured Ayaan Hirsi Ali with their freedom prize. But when it comes to the dutch MP Geert Wilders, AFR warns against “demonizing” groups of people.

Why?

The views of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders are similar. They both make a distinction between islam and muslims, between islam as a religion and islam as a political ideology.

The answer is, that to be acceptable for the political establishment you still need to be an ex-muslim or at least of non-european origin to point out the dangers of islam.

The press release from PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen (in danish)

The Prime Ministers Office (english site)

Wilders´movie will be released at fitnathemovie.co.uk March 23.

Update The interview on Youtube: