Europe Braces for Release of Film Linking Koran to Terror
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
March 06, 2008
** (CNSNews.com)** - A leading U.S.-based Internet company says it’s ready for any electronic attacks that may come its way for hosting a Web site featuring a provocative short film that is critical of the Koran. The movie, made by a controversial Dutch politician and due for release any time now, has sparked protests in the Islamic world and concerns in Europe.
In recent days, the Dutch prime minister has reiterated warnings that his country’s citizens and businesses could be attacked because of the film; the European Union’s executive commission has confirmed it sent talking points on the film to E.U. missions abroad; and NATO’s secretary general has voiced concern that the film could increase the risk to Dutch troops serving in Afghanistan.
Outspoken right-wing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders said he made the movie to support his contention that the Koran – which Muslims revere as the revealed word of Allah to the prophet Mohammed – inspires “intolerance, murder and terror.”
He hopes to find a television network willing to broadcast the 15-minute documentary, entitled “Fitna” (“strife” in Arabic), but also plans to post it on the Internet. He has set up a Web site for this purpose, which currently carries only an image of the Koran alongside the text, “Geert Wilders presents Fitna. Coming Soon.”
The site is hosted by Network Solutions, a northern Virginia-based tech company that manages about seven million Internet domain names.
Asked whether the company expects the site to draw much interest or strong reaction, spokeswoman Susan Wade said Wednesday said she could not say how much traffic the site was drawing, “but we are always prepared for any kind of denial-of-service attack, whether it be from anywhere for any reason. It’s something that we’re always preparing for.”
If people have complaints about the content of Web sites hosted by the company, she said, they could report it.
“We have an acceptable-use policy that all customers agree to. [In the event of complaints] we would review the content, and take any necessary action.”
The acceptable-use policy prohibits the posting of content “that is obscene, defamatory, libelous, unlawful, harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, constitutes an illegal threat, violates export control laws, hate propaganda, fraudulent material or fraudulent activity, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable material of any kind or nature.”
/s4 ‘Bigoted and blasphemous’
Reports about the coming film have triggered an angry response from some parts of the Muslim world, where many critics see it as yet another example of “Islamophobic” Western attacks on their religion. The recent republication by Danish newspapers of cartoons of Mohammed has stirred similar sentiment.
Afghan lawmakers, clerics and others protested in the streets at the weekend, and Pakistan’s government summoned the Dutch ambassador to complain.
“Bigoted and blasphemous acts such as the Danish cartoons and Wilders film [are] … promoting xenophobia in Europe,” foreign office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a press briefing Wednesday.
He said the Koran film had “nothing to do with the right of freedom of expression.”
The Organization for the Islamic Conference issued a statement condemning “instances of Islamophobia,” including the cartoons and the Wilders film, and also the use of terms like “Islamo-fascism,” “Islamic terrorism” and “radical Islam.”
The 56-nation bloc called on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to urge the governments concerned “to take all possible legal and administrative measures to prevent the repetition or continuation of these deliberate offensive acts.”
The Dutch government has made it clear it does not support the film, and that it would like Wilders not to release it. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Wednesday he did not intend to try to prevent the film’s release, but called on the lawmaker “to show a sense of responsibility.”
An E.U. spokeswoman on Wednesday said a memo sent to E.U. missions abroad had given officials guidelines on how to respond to queries about the film. Christiane Hohmann was quoted as saying staff were advised to stress that “tolerance and freedom of speech” are valued highly in Europe.
Last week the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that an al-Qaeda-affiliated Web site has posted an appeal for Wilders to be killed.
Wilders subsequently criticized the government for not speaking out in his defense, saying Balkenende was so fearful of the consequences of the film that he appeared willing to capitulate, rather than defend democratic freedoms.
“I want to make one thing clear,” Wilders wrote in an article on his Dutch-language blog. “The film will be released. Soon you will be able to see with your own eyes why the Koran is such a terrible book and why it is necessary to fight hard against Islamization.”
In a survey by Dutch pollster Maurice du Hond, 45 percent of respondents said Wilders had the right to make the film and to release it; 35 percent said although he had the right to do so, considering the consequences, he should be advised not to; 10 percent said everything possible should be done to persuade him not to go ahead; and seven percent said he didn’t have the right to do it.
Wilders has been at the center of controversy before, notably when he called last summer for the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands. He made the remarks after a Dutch politician of Iranian extract, who drew fire from Muslims for setting up an organization for people who had left the faith, was violently attacked in the street.
Muslims, mostly of Moroccan and Turkish origin, make up about six percent of the country’s population of 16 million people.
In 2004, a Dutch Muslim shot and stabbed to death Theo Van Gogh, a controversial filmmaker, after he made a television film accusing Islam of condoning violence against women.
The screenplay for van Gogh’s film was written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalia-born Dutch lawmaker who was also threatened with death, and later moved to the U.S.
One of the reasons the Koran film is causing such concern in the Netherlands is because of the reactions two years ago to the newspaper caricatures depicting Mohammed.
Scores of people were killed in several Islamic countries during protests against the cartoons in early 2006. The violence erupted after Danish Muslim clerics toured the Arab world to drum up protests against the cartoons, whose original appearance the previous September had drawn scant attention.
This coming from a politician is really sad. Luckily the PM of Netherlands is urging him not to release it because it violates the national laws that prohibit causing unrest.