German Comment Views Anti-Koran Film, Freedom of Speech

Text of report by right-of-centre German newspaper Die Welt website on 29 March

[Unattributed commentary: "Islamism and Self-Censorship"]

This film is a shocker. It shows explosions, charred corpses, people jumping out of the burning World Trade Centre, homosexuals being hanged in an Islamic country, girls after circumcision. And in between suras from the Koran calling for hatred and war against infidels in the name of Allah.

Geert Wilders of the Netherlands wants to warn of “Islamization of society” with his 16-minute film. One could have dismissed it as rightwing populist alarmism, but of all people, Wilders’ non- Islamic critics confirm his Cassandra calls. EU bodies and foreign ministers surpass each other in their lamentations that it was possible to publish the film. As if freedom of the press and opinion represent the genuine danger for inter-religious dialogue and the peaceful coexistence of people!

Naturally, the film is one-sided since it shows only the negative sides which is Islamism. But it waives any fictional element and lines up headlines, pictures from news broadcasts and excerpts from sermons of hatred. Every politician who had wanted to prevent such a provocation beforehand seems to prove that it was necessary. And reveals at the same time with what mistrust he faces the Muslims of the world – who significantly enough reacted to the film with pronounced moderation and a matter-of-fact attitude, at least until the copy deadline.

In the past, a fatwa was declared against Salman Rushdie because his “Satanic Verses” were considered blasphemous. Theo van Gogh was assassinated because his criticism of the oppression of women in Islam did not suit the extremists. A Danish caricaturist must hide to this day because of the threat of assassination – just like Wilders. Yet the debate about him opened up a new quality of iconoclasm. Are even documentary sequences of “9/11″ or other attacks inopportune? Wilders has withheld himself from the self- censors of the free world.

Originally published by Die Welt website, Berlin, in German 29 Mar 08.

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