Fitna

Geert Wilders has created a propaganda piece that takes on radical and fundamentalist islam, and the 15 minute film is called Fitna, which means “disagreement or division”. After watching the film, I’d say that, as before, I am opposed to any fundamentalist, hardline religious teachings, no matter what the religion may be. Mr. Wilders would like to ban the Qur’an in Holland, as he likens the book an insensitive call-to-arms against democracy and freedom.

In the film, Wilders quotes the Qur’an, sura 4, verse 56:

“Surely, those who disbelieve in our revelations, we will condemn them to the hellfire. Whenever their skins are burnt, we will give them new skins. Thus, they will suffer continuously.”

and from sura 47, verse 4:

“…when ye meet the Unbelievers, inflict a heavy blow upon their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them).”

Wilders uses these verses to point out that fundamental hostility toward other religions exists in the Qur’an, and that allowing this insensitivity to flourish freely damages our society.

The funny thing is that these verses remind me of warlike behaviour found in the stories and quotes of the old testament. After all, if we’re examining islam and pointing out blasphemy, we shouldn’t fail to scrutinize other religions’ texts.

A good example of hostility in judeo-christian tradition is found in biblical Moses and Joshua. Moses attacks and defeats the Amorites at Moab, and then continues on to Bashan, where he commands Israelite forces to slay every man, woman, and child, and take the rich local bounty for themselves. After Moses dies, Joshua takes over the part of Israelite fundamentalist warmonger. He lead his forces to take Jericho, where his troops slaughter every living thing save a prostitute, Rahab, who had assisted Israelite spies. Joshua continued on, capturing the city of Ai, and then slaughtering the people of Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, Kadesh, Gaza, Goshen, and Gibeon.

“So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed…” (Joshua 10:40)

When taken in the context of these quotes from the bible and Qur’an, both islam and judaism seem outright violent. It seems that they both condemn all who don’t share their beliefs.

In time, humanity should get tired of these outdated, insensitive ideas and move on to more cooperative ones. Considering these texts are two-thousand and thirteen-hundred years old, respectively, it’s not surprising to see change.

The following is an embed of Fitna:

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