If you haven't yet seen the controversial 15 minute short film Fitna by Geert Wilders you should. I am not endorsing it nor using it to condemn Islam, but it is a wake up call to what many people are doing in the name of Islam.
Were people doing this in the name of Christianity I should be shouting from the rooftops in condemnation of them. The Muslims that I know are friendly, house-trained Westerners, yet I know that there are British Muslims who think it is a righteous thing to do to incinerate men women and children in tube trains, buses and aeroplanes. There are Imams in British Mosques preaching death to homosexuals, adulterers, Muslims who convert to Christianity, cartoonists, novelists and Muslim soldiers in the British military. I don't know how strong this movement is, but it is prominent enough to have scared a lot of people.
Wilders' film shows passages from the Koran, then an Imam preaching, then one of the many atrocities that act out the jihad. It does not make easy viewing. Network Solutions, which originally hosted the video is apparently seeking to censor its content following complaints from Muslims. The film is certainly inflammatory, but not because of any shrillness or propaganda. The content is factual. It would be easy to draw the conclusion that all Muslims are like this and that immigration is to blame.
In the Guardian today, Timothy Garton-Ash writes against censorship, but still criticises the film - clearly he come from a different political perspective to Wilders.
Similar passages may be found in the Old Testament, and one misunderstood passage in Romans Chapter 1 in the New Testament, but you would be hard put to find a Jewish or Christian preacher preaching that these verses should be put into practice, and you don't find Christian terrorists blowing themselves up in city metros. Indeed, when a 'Christian' assassinated a doctor who performed abortions it was roundly condemned by almost every Christian on the planet, even those who are passionately against abortion.
My message therefore to Muslims is, "These people are desecrating your religion. Make them stop. If you don't people will assume that this is what Islam is like."
3 comments:
Regarding your last paragraph: You are shouting into the wind, I'm afraid.
I may be mistaken but I think the Moslem call to prays can be heard daily in London, the population of Islam is so large there now. And one of your religious leaders has said that the imposition of Sharia law is inevitable.
Don't believe everything you read. Neither is true.
Wow, a very powerful film. I had no idea...
what people do in the name of religion...
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