Threat of Lawsuits Force Changes to Dutch Anti-Islam Film
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A far-right Dutch lawmaker says he will make changes to a controversial film that accuses the Muslim holy book, the Koran, of inciting violence.
The film, which has drawn widespread protest, contains an incendiary cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban resembling a bomb.
Film producer Geert Wilders confirmed Monday that he will edit out the caricature, after the original artist threatened a lawsuit for copyright infringement.
Dutch entertainer Salah Edin also threatened to sue, complaining the film wrongly identifies him as the Muslim radical who killed a Dutch right-wing filmmaker in 2004.
Wilder posted the film on his political party’s Internet site last week, triggering protests in the United Nations and across the Muslim world, where such depictions are considered blasphemy.
In Indonesia Monday, several-dozen members of a hardline Islamic group rallied outside the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta to protest the film.
At the rally, some 40-members of the Islamic Defenders Front demanded that the Indonesian government cut ties with Amsterdam in response to the film.
Wilders says he made the film to show how Muslim immigration is a threat to Europe’s democracies. In it, he alternates images of terrorist attacks with quotations from the Koran.
(Posted on April 2, 2008)
Indonesia: Government Bans Anti-Koran Film
AKI (The Hague), April 1, 2008
Indonesia has banned the controversial anti-Koran film by the Dutch right-wing MP, Geert Wilders.
The Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for calm in the mainly Muslim nation on Tuesday and said that Wilders would also be barred from entering the country.
Wilders’ 17-minute film entitled Fitna, criticised Islam’s holy book, the Koran. The film sets verses of the Koran against a background of images from terrorist attacks. It accuses Islam of inspiring violence.
Small groups of protestors had gathered outside the embassy of the Netherlands in Jakarta to protest against the film. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation with some 90 percent of its 230 million people following Islam.
The Dutch government has condemned the film and Dutch broadcasters have avoided showing it. The video had been posted on a video-sharing website.
Reports say that Wilders has received death threats and is under police protection.
Comments
“Reports say that Wilders has received death threats and is under police protection.”
Wilders is not stupid and had to know this would happen. A courageous man has made his point.
Posted by Whiteplight at 5:30 PM on April 2
That won’t stop the Religion of Peace from expanding its violence into all parts of the world.
Posted by at 5:51 PM on April 2
Hummm they are so touchy when it comes to that so called holy book….it kinda reads like a violent crime series….kill, kill, kill….lop off heads…beat up women….no wonder they don’t want sane people to know about them and their stupid religion!!
Posted by lydia at 7:16 PM on April 2
I don’t understand the big deal about this film. It depicts truth in both images and verse. How can truth be controversial?
Posted by Joe at 10:20 PM on April 2
“I don’t understand the big deal about this film. It depicts truth in both images and verse. How can truth be controversial?”
The truth is Lucky to be elevated to ‘controversial’, in this day and age…
Posted by at 10:09 AM on April 3
You can sign an online petition in support of Geert Wilders at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/wilders/petition.html
I figured it was the least I could do to help stem the tide of islamic domination that threatens my children and grandchildren’s future. I don’t know if anything can be done when our own leaders are calling islam and religion of peace. What a joke that phrase is when applied to islam. I will never fear or back down for the tyrants.
Stay strong friends.
Posted by Douglas at 8:30 PM on April 3
“Film producer Geert Wilders confirmed Monday that he will edit out the caricature, after the original artist threatened a lawsuit for copyright infringement.”
I saw the original ‘Fitna’. It was STELLAR. You would think the European Journalist who drew the original cartoons would be TICKLED PINK to have his graphic used in such a film. I, for one, would buy a lithograph of that cartoon merely by having it seen in Fitna.
Now, I wouldn’t even use that image for toilet paper, because the originator is AFRAID to stand up and be counted as a European who says “NO” to the Hagarenes.
What did he think would happen when he drew the cartoon in the first place? A Nobel Peace Prize?
Coward.
Posted by Fr. John at 7:22 AM on April 4