Saturday, April 5, 2008

Of a Journey of 10 Billion Millimetres, the First is always the Most Important -- Book of Philosophies 12:79

And that's what I'm gonna do today as my first official post. This post is the Mundane Discussions genre and my topic for discussion for today is a controversial film by Geert Wilders, Fitna.

Fitna is an Arabic word meaning "disagreement". This film shows terrorism linked to Islamic groups such as Al-Qaeda and is accompanied by verses from the Qur'an, the holy book of the Muslims. This film implies that these verses are these attacks as seen in,

"Those who have disbelieved our signs, we shall roast them in fire. Whenever their skins are cooked to a turn, we shall substitute new skins for them, that they may feel the punishment; Verily God is sublime and wise. --An-Nisa' 4:56"

As any person can see, this verse shows that Muslims are supposed to torture those who do not share their faith. But is it really? Is in not fair that we hear what the Muslims have to say?

This verse from the Qur'an actually depicts the fate of sinners (ie. non-believers who do not follow the faith of Jews, Christian, Sabians or Muslims) in hell for rejecting faith while living in the world that God has created.

Also in the film there has been depicted of the notorious capital punishment for the Islamic faith, including the punishment for homosexuality, female genital mutilation and punishments for child abuse. Sure, the Sharia' law is capital, but it serves as a reminder for the masses that these acts are unacceptable. Furthermore, the Muslims believe that such punishments actually lighten the punishments received in hell or even in further in life.

Impacts of this film may include further aggression from already-extremist Islamic groups like Taliban towards the Dutch government or community and may spark more strife. Already having a bad impression of the West as seen as territory-hungry warmongers (most of Middle Eastern territories have been colonised at some point in time by Westerners and the American occupation of Iraq caused the people to hate the American government for not pulling out even though Saddam Hussein is dead ) and this image will be worsened further.

Let's look into Wilders' point of view. His main motif of this film is "to provoke thought". IMHO, if an opinion wants to be voiced, it has to be done in a professional matter and has to be done and backed with facts from research.

Finally, let us remember that because of a few rotten apples the whole basket has to be thrown away (unless the apple carries a transmittable disease but this has not always been the case). Islam, like any other religion, promotes goodwill and peace. This can be backed up with a verse from the Qur'an as follows:

"Those who believe (in the Scriptures) and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians, -- any who believe in God and in the Last Day (Armageddon), and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. -- Al-Baqarah 1:62"

What is your view on the film Fitna? Post your views in the Comments section (preferably) or drop a line in the CBox on the right. Until then, watch out for my next article!

1 comment:

BH said...

Once again, there are far too many idiot out there who choose to equate Islam with terrorism. How much stupider can they get.

This post is very insightful. Too often people only believe the first bit of information that hits them. Unfortunately, there are waaaay too many buffoons running the media in the West. While these bumbling fools go out and hurl poorly-backed "facts" at innocent minds, more and more people are being misled into thinking that Muslims are all terrorists.

I know someone who thought Muslims were terrible people until she lived in KL for a while, and found out how great they are.

From what it seems for now, Fitna is nothing but another excuse for some people to turn radical and bomb these idiots again.