Controversial Anti-Muslim Film Sparks Worldwide Condemnation

Sunday , March 30, 2008

Nations around the world are protesting the release of a Dutch lawmaker's anti-Islamic film.

Australia condemned Geert Wilders' 15-minute film, titled "Fitna," or "Ordeal" in Arabic, Sunday with the foreign minister calling it "highly offensive."

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith rejected the film's premise of equating Islam with acts of terror and violence.

"It is an obvious attempt to generate discord between faith communities," Smith said. "I strongly reject the ideas contained in the film and deplore its release."

"Fitna" was posted online Thursday but removed from the site, LiveLeak.com, a day later. It has since been widely dispersed on other file-sharing sites.

The European Union issued a statement Saturday saying the film --that portrays Islam as a ticking time bomb aimed at the West -- serves no other purpose than to inflame hatred. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also has condemned the film, saying there is no justification for hate speech or the incitement of violence.

Despite their condemnation, the European leaders defended the right to freedom of speech and called on Muslims to react peacefully.

In the Middle East, Iran has summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran to discuss the film, Reuters reported. A senior diplomat from Slovenia, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was also called to the ministry in Tehran over Wilder's film.

Jordanian lawmakers are taking more severe diplomatic measures and demanded their government cuts ties with the Netherlands. Forty-eight lawmakers in the 110-seat parliament have also called for the government to dismiss the Dutch envoy.

Pakistan's foreign ministry on Friday summoned the ambassador of the Netherlands in Islamabad and lodged a "strong protest", according to AFP. It has stepped up the security of the Dutch consulate and businesses in Karachi fearing protests over the Internet release of an anti-Islam film by the far-right Dutch MP.

And in Asia, hundreds of Indonesian students took to the streets Sunday in protest, according to AFP, after a minister called for protests. The students carried posters demanding that authorities shut down websites carrying Geert Wilders' film.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Blah, blah, blah! Why is the world so weak on this issue!?

Demonstrators Break Into Dutch Consulate in Indonesia in Film Protest

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

JAKARTA, Indonesia —
Around 50 Islamic students broke into the grounds of a Dutch consulate building in Indonesia during a protest Wednesday against an anti-Muslim film by a Dutch lawmaker, an embassy official said.

The protesters ripped down the flag from the building in the western city of Medan, said Dutch Embassy spokeswoman Gonneke De Ridder.

Radio station el-Shinta reported protesters also threw stones at the consulate and set the flag alight, but she could not confirm that.

The 17-minute film by anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders intersperses scenes of recent terror attacks by Muslim extremists with versus from the Koran, Islam's holy book. It has been condemned as racist and misleading by governments around the world.

I wonder why everybody calls it anti-muslim? Speaking on what one believes in or thinks doesn't always mean it is anti right?