Tuesday, April 01, 2008

The Most Prohibited Film

A controversy film by Geert Wilders


After I commented on a film "the Verses of Love" which articulates nicely Islam as a moderate and peaceful religion, there is yet an antagonist film against Islam being distributed widely quite recently. It seems to me that the world is always splitted into two parts. So as the products of human beings. Not only do we have to see a positive picture of this life, but also we have to realize that there are people from different angles see this reality differently.

Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician made a controversy film which illustrates the barbaric and outrageous face of Islam. This film has stirred public dismay among Muslims, as this film has drawn a simplistic view of Islam. We have to know that through the course of history Islam is not a monolithic religion with a single school of thought. By all means it is a blasphemy against Islam as a religion of peace. For many, the religions of Abraham have different Gods. Some believe that God of Islam is barbaric and uncivilized. When President Bush said during a November 2003 press conference. He believed Christians and Muslims "worship the same God," as a result, evangelical leaders reacted strongly, with one leading Southern Baptist figure calling the president "simply mistaken."


As a member of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV), Wilders also proposed the ban of the Qur'an in the Netherlands. He believes that the Qur'an is a book full of atrocious calls against Jews and Christians. In last August 2007, he called upon the prohibition of the Qur'an in the country. Wilders said some of the text's verses teach Muslims "to oppress, persecute or kill Christians, Jews, dissidents and non-believers, to beat and rape women and to establish an Islamic state by force." For him, the Qur'an is a fascist book, a violent book that brings a lot of tensions. It condones crimes against humanity. Therefore, a new moderate Qur'an is needed for today's lives. He opined that the inovation of the New Testament is very good, since it contains more moderate teachings; something that Islam must follow suit.

He foresaw the threats from two directions, the ideology of Islam and the growing number of Muslims. Hence, he urged the halt of Muslim immigration to the Netherlands, since Muslims would live different life to that of the Dutch. The influx of Muslims from any Muslim countries must be stopped, since they tend to escalate the tension of civilizational clash. He referred his opinion to an academic polling result where around 40 percent Moroccan born Dutch in their 20's are against the establishment of democracy. Rather, they support the shari'ah or Islamic law to be implemented in the Netherlands.

He was very worry about the fact that Muslims are the fast-growing population in the Netherlands. According to survey results, Dutch people are aware about the inter-religious situation in their country, where one in every 16 citizens is a member of Islamic faith. Previously, in portraying the increased population of Muslims in the Netherlands, Wilders says:

"Take a walk down the street and see where this is going. You no longer feel like you are living in your own country. There is a battle going on and we have to defend ourselves. Before you know it there will be more mosques than churches!" For further interview, you can see at this link. It has been obvious that Islam runs very fast as a world religion.

The Jakarta Post, March 31, 2008 reported the growing number of Muslims in the world that has outnumbered the Catholics. Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world. Monsignor Vittorio Formenti found that Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent. This is the first time in history. Anyway, Wilders seems to be very ignorant about a potential blaze in which communal conflicts are possible if he always positions himself as the crusader against Islam. Blaming Islam as the piece of vilain for every chaos and social unrest is very much foolish. Freedom of expression is good in one way or another, but not all.

Just have a look the most gruesome film below, and let's see whether or not his film is going to be a blockbuster or just a blocked-bastard?:




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Minggu lalu ada teman yang memberi saya link untuk melihat (cuplikan?)tayangan tersebut dan rekaman wawancara Wilders. Saya sempat tersinggung tetapi setelah melihat rekaman tersebut, komentar saya "walah...cuma gitu?"
Tapi ada beberapa hal yang mesti kita perhatikan sebelum kita 'marah'. Sebagai politikus, Wilders saya anggap 'gagal' dalam menterjemahkan kondisi sosial masyarakat Islam di negaranya. Bagaimanapun, kalau ada sebagian masyarakat (yang menurut hasil riset, betulkah? inipun perlu dipertanyakan)yang dianggap kelompok 'ekstrim' (apa ya kriterianya? nggak jelas juga)sebenarnya juga 'produk' sistem pendidikan dan sosial kemasyarakatan yang dianut negara tsb. Mestinya dia harus berani mengakui titik kelemahan pemerintahannya..ya kan?
Kalau benar rekaman yang saya lihat itu merupakan keseluruhan karya Wilders, hm....dangkal sekali pemikiran Wilders. Dia hanya mencuplik beberapa 'scene' dengan tanpa menyebutkan sumber dimana, kapan dan siapa yang 'direkam' itu. Bagaimana mungkin kita bisa memahami pernyataan seseorang jika kita tidak melihat konteks pembicaraan tsb secara utuh?
Yang lain, dari ayat-ayat yang disitir di rekaman itu juga diambil sepenggal dan diterjemahkan dengan keliru.
Dari hasil wawancara juga tampak sekali jika politikus ini menampakkan sikap arogansinya dengan mengabaikan perasaan ummat Islam se-dunia atas nama kebebasan berekspresi.
Namun demikian, bukan berarti kita boleh berdiam diri. Buat saya, ini saat yang baik untuk melakukan evaluasi diri. Apa yang sudah kita lakukan untuk menampakkan nilai-nilai universal dan kemanusiaan yang mulia dari Islam?
Gimana Mas?
Panjang banget ya...?

Anonymous said...

Maaf, lupa nulis...
itu komentarku, Mei

Mbah Parto said...

Mei,

Manusia memang memiliki kecenderungan dan kepentingan yang bermacam. Wilders mengangkat isu tersebut karena dia ingin mendapatkan dukungan pro partainya, dan juga dukungan dunia yang anti Islam.

Apapun yang bisa kita jual, maka juallah. Tak pandang apakah jualan tersebut membuat dunia semakin hancur dan terpuruk. Semoga kita bisa memberikan kesan dan kenyataan bahwa Islam bukanlah apa yang ada dalam ruang imijinasi Wilders.

Anonymous said...

Ya, saya rasa kepentingan politik lebih dominan...maaf itu salah satu poin yang lupa saya tulis.
Sepakat, semoga kita menjadi lebih semangat untuk menunjukkan identitas Muslim yang santun, ramah, egaliter, dll...dll..dll
Mei

Anonymous said...

Mbah,
Just to remind you careful posting that youtube clip here. See this .

One more thing, in the spirit of banning FITNA movie in Indonesia, our website http://menebarhikmah.multiply.com is also blocked.