04/10/2008 01:22 PM
RESPONSE TO WILDERS' ANTI-KORAN FILM
Saudi Blogger Releases Christian Version of 'Fitna'
The recent film "Fitna" by the controversial Dutch politician Geert
Wilders was seen by many as
an attack on Islam. Now a Saudi blogger has created a film featuring
violent texts from the
Bible, with the intention of showing that stereotyping can go both ways.
A new online movie provides a response to Geert Wilders' "Fitna."
A new online movie provides a response to Geert Wilders' "Fitna."
A Saudi blogger has produced an online movie mocking the recent
anti-Islamic film by Dutch
politician Geert Wilders, using the Bible and Christian extremists as the
subject matter rather
than the Koran and Muslims.
The film "Schism" by Raed Al-Saeed, 33, is a little over six minutes in
length and can be
viewed on the Internet video ****tal YouTube. The film takes verses from
the Bible promoting
violence, killing and war and intersperses them with provocative images.
These images include a hand-held video of soldiers beating unarmed boys in
Iraq as the original
recording's English-speaking narrator expresses sadistic satisfaction.
Another series of images
focus on a female evangelical preacher urging children to kill for their
religion as well as
the children speaking proudly about being "trained" to be part of "God's
Army."
"Schism" responds to "Fitna," a 15-minute film by the Dutch right-wing
populist politician
Geert Wilders which was released on the Internet last month. That film
interposes images of the
terrorist attacks in New York and Madrid with verses from the Koran and
headlines re****ting
Islamist violence.
Although "Fitna" has been condemned by many Muslims and has sparked
demonstrations, such as
those with an estimated 25,000 participants in Pakistan earlier this week,
reactions so far
have generally been weaker than many observers anticipated.
At the end of his film, Al-Saeed draws a parallel between his film and
that of Wilders. The
penultimate screen image reads: "It is easy to take parts of any Holy
(sic) book that are out
of content (sic) and make it sound like the most inhuman book ever
written. That is what Geert
Wilders did to gather more sup****ters to his hateful ideology. To create
schism."
Al-Saeed told the English-language Saudi newspaperArab News Thursday that
he made the film in
less than 24 hours in order to demonstrate that Islam should not be judged
by watching "Fitna,"
which he believes gives a distorted view of Islam. He added that he
believed "Fitna" was "based
on hate" and reflects Wilders' "racism and hatred."
According to Arab News, Al-Saeed's video was posted on March 1 on YouTube.
Administrators
allegedly took it down, but Al-Saeed re****tedly convinced the site's
administrators to allow it
back up, arguing that letting "Fitna" remain when his film was not
available would be unfair.
A number of similar films on YouTube share the same -- if not occasionally
more graphic --
content and even title. Numerous parodies of "Fitna" are also available on
the site.
jtw/dpa
URL:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,546534,00.html
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com
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