… when the 10-minute film by Geert Wilders about the Qur’an will be released in about 2 weeks.
In his own words he will try to show that that Islam’s holy book “is an inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror”. In February last year Wilders called on Muslims to “tear out half the pages of the Koran and throw them away”.
I wonder how any person can be so full of hatred. Does he really hope to change anybody’s life to the better with this film? (Ok, maybe his own due to more publicity.)
He wants to provoke and provoke he will. Sadly, people will let themselves go to their feelings of “revenge” and people will get hurt and probably killed if the film gets shown. More than one hundred people died after the Mohammed cartoons were released, but that will be a picnic compared to somebody tearing and burning the Qur’an and broadcasting it on youtube.
Of course, in an ideal world nobody would get insulted. They’d just ignore Wilder altogether and that would be the end of the story. But people will not ignore him.
So how could it be avoided that a single individual causes so much suffering and sorrow?
Does there have to be this asymmetry? What I mean: could a single person just as easily, by releasing a 10-minute film, bring joy and happiness to the world and support the mutual respect and understanding between religions?
Would it change the world if there was 10-minute film with all the religious leaders playing pool together, or maybe going on a roller coaster ride together?
It certainly wouldn’t hurt (and it would immediately become my favorite movie), but I doubt that it would start waves of people embracing each other as brothers and as fellow human beings in their quest for happiness.
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January 19, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Rodrigo Schmidt
I would bet he just wants the money and publicity a movie like this could bring. If he had a 10-minute movie about how different religions can live with each other in peace and harmony, nobody would feel compelled to watch it.
It also seems to me that a movie where religious leaders play together might make people rethink their religious beliefs and this does not seem to be good for any of the participating religions. I think that any religion that wants to succeed as a religion must have some fundamentalism in it.
January 19, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Ingmar Weber
Well, but it seems that a religion should be there for its people, and not that the people should be there for the religion.
A religion should help people in their lives, it should offer solutions to the existential problems, it should make people happy, it should ease the fear of death.
But it should not just exist in order to gain more followers, to become more widespread and to be successful as a religion (in terms of numbers of worshipers). That would, to me personally, be about as spiritually meaningful as a pyramid scheme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme).
January 20, 2008 at 11:55 am
Sharki
I would say let’s first watch the movie and then judge it.
I do share, however, some views with the guy about the fact that islam (and the monotheistic religions in general) poses threat to the secular societies and moral values of the humankind.
There should be a discussion with no taboos and people should not be afraid to look into religions critically. Ex-muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be heard! Once there are more information about the actual contents of the “holy books” of the Abrahamic religions – maybe people will realize the “true values” of these religions.
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“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion. Steven Weinberg”
January 20, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Ingmar Weber
Thanks for posting your opinion.
I fully agree that religions should be looked at “critically”, but I’m strongly opposed to insulting other cultures and to exploiting islamophobia for political campaigns.
He also seems to implicitly imply that Christianity is better, which just seems to be ridiculous to me. If his point was “Religious fanaticism of any kind can be dangerous.” then I’d be willing to listen to him. But his point seems to be more like “I hate all Muslims.” and this I most vigorously object to.
And, of course, just from reading the books no-one is going to get the “true values”. I don’t think any two scholars will agree on all the interpretations of any of the books. Needless to say that he will just pick out the parts that ignite more hatred and that fit with his political campaign.
The question I also ask myself is this: Will anybody afterwards be happier? Is he really trying to change anything for the better?
People will just hate each other more than before. People will get killed. And only one politician/party might benefit from this. This is why I believe that the film, if it does show what everybody thinks, should not be shown.
January 20, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Sharki
Christianity, Judaism and Islam are in general the same religion. I would never say that Christianity is better than Islam or Islam is better than Judaism. They are all the same! The “god’s words” which reside in all of these “holy” books ALLOW the “scholars” of any religion to JUSTIFY genocide, slavery, murder, revenge, exploitation of women etc.
The words in the bible allowed christians to slay people during the Dark Ages in Europe, burning on the stakes by Inquisition, resulted in genocide in the America’s with the lost cultures of Maya’s, Inca’s and other indigenous people. During the civil war in america christians with the bible in hands were backing the slavery and the land-owners of the southern states. Up to now “the bible belt” in the USA is notorious for their racism and intolerance to the minorities. Christian priests did not oppose to Hitler or Musolini… Fortunately these days the christian scholars are “carefully cherry-picking” correct phrases from the bible which do not contradict the moral values of the humanity… But this is not a stable system and it can easily diverge and put as back to the Dark Ages.
While christians were raging in Europe and burning scientists on the stakes – muslims were actually embracing knowledge and made the middle east the center of the culture.
However, he things changed – Islam currently is going though a state which Christianity went a while ago and interpreting the Koran in the most “extreme” way, thus it could be fair to say that at the moment is the most dangerous religion on the planet.
I’m not aware of actual values of G.Wilders and if he criticizes only islam, while promoting christianity – this would be, of course, unfair. But I do believe that the comparative education on the religions is essential, to uncover the true faces of them… So my point would be by showing this and other documentaries on all religions to make people immune to the religious propaganda. With the age of Internet you are able to watch all the points-of-view and decide afterwards. I’m an optimist and do believe that relatively soon the majority of the people will be free of superstitions.
So actually I will be looking forward to see that movie
January 20, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Ingmar Weber
Well, if it was (i) an “objective” documentary and (ii) had proper comparative elements, then I’d also be looking forward to seeing that movie.
But it will apparently be (i) pure hate propaganda and (ii) only discuss Islam.
So it will in no way contribute anything to a better understanding of and respect towards other religions. It will only reinforce existing stereotypes and fears.
It will lead to radicals becoming more radical and to people hating each other more and more.
So, although I’m sure we agree on the “fundamental values” involved in this debate, I still maintain my opinion that the movie will only cause sorrow and not help a single person (outside of Wilder’s followers). Therefore it should not be shown.
February 16, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Sharki
Some comments on the future film by Ayaan Hirsi Ali:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IITEbqvmHQk