Marked for Death: Islam's War Against the West and Me (30 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Fitna

That’s all a man can hope for during his lifetime—to set an example—and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history.

—William McKinley

I
n late 2007, I decided to make
Fitna,
a 15-minute documentary film about the Islamic threat. The most common translation of the Arabic word
fitna
is “ordeal” or “trial.” The title of the film symbolizes my view that Islam is an ordeal currently confronting the West. I was assisted in making the film by Koran experts who, to protect their personal safety, remained anonymous.

Featuring an exquisite copy of a Koran I bought in East Jerusalem,
Fitna
juxtaposes Koranic verses calling for violence, particularly against non-Muslims, with footage of terrorist attacks and other violent deeds these verses have inspired, along with clips of Islamic leaders inciting violence for the sake of Allah.
¹
Fitna
also reveals the ongoing Islamization process in the Netherlands. My movie shows real-life images from real-life Islam. Actually, one could say that I did not really make the movie; Islam made it for me.

Fitna
is not just
about
the Koran; it unfolds
inside
the Koran, as the edges of the book remain visible throughout the whole film. Inside these edges I show images of what the Koran prescribes. Viewers shocked by the violent images should not get angry with me, but with the people who perpetrate these acts and with the book that commands them.

The film ends with a hand gripping a page of the Koran. The image fades out amidst the sound of a page being ripped from a book. Then the following message appears: “The sound you heard was a page being removed from the phonebook. For it is not up to me, but to Muslims themselves to tear out the hateful verses from the Quran.”

The reaction to
Fitna
proved the film’s entire point: outraged at my film’s suggestion that the Koran advocates violence, furious Islamic activists unleashed wild threats of violence. In an immigrant neighborhood of Gouda, swastikas and the slogan “Wilders must die” appeared on the walls of a school. A Moroccan youth group posted a video clip on the internet showing hooded youths beating up what appeared to be two Dutch skinheads on a train. The clip ends with the warning: “F*** all those who support Wilders because you had better realize: one will reap the consequences of one’s actions!!!!”
²

People with the last name Wilders, though unrelated to me, received letters threatening that if they failed to prevent me from releasing
Fitna,
“The first deadly victim will be you, one of your children or grandchildren.”
³
The Dutch Muslim Council labeled me a “racist, fascist, and authoritarian” and a “threat to Dutch society.”
⁴
A spokesman for the Dutch branch of
Hizb ut-Tahrir
(Party of Liberation), a radical Muslim group aiming to impose a worldwide Caliphate, declared that the Netherlands was due for a terror attack.
⁵

All this came in reaction to news reports about
Fitna
—the film had not even been released yet, and none of my hysterical critics had actually seen it. Nevertheless, several Dutch Islamic and leftist organizations and individuals lodged criminal complaints against me for inciting hatred, discrimination, and “group insult.” Gerard Spong, a leading Dutch lawyer, offered to represent some of my accusers free of charge.
⁶

Threats against me and my entire country poured in from across the Islamic world. Iran warned that it would “react to the Dutch insult.”
⁷
Pakistan banned access to YouTube until it removed a “blasphemous” video of me announcing the making of
Fitna
.
⁸
An al Qaeda-linked website proclaimed that I should be killed.
⁹
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, a Dutchman, told the BBC that he feared my movie would affect NATO troops in Afghanistan—and indeed, the Taliban threatened to attack Dutch troops, while demonstrators in Afghan cities demanded the troops’ expulsion.
¹⁰
On January 15, 2008, the Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that if I tore up or burned a Koran (as some reports falsely claimed I was about to do in
Fitna
), “this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed. And he will be responsible.”
¹¹
Interestingly, the official press release issued by the European Parliament after the Grand Mufti’s address did not mention these words, but applauded his statement that “war can never be holy; peace is holy.”
¹²

Dutch businessmen, too, reacted angrily, fearing my film would provoke a worldwide boycott of Dutch products. AkzoNobel CEO Hans Wijers called me a “rude clown.”
¹³
VNO-NCW, the organization of Dutch enterprises and employers, announced that it would investigate whether I could be held personally responsible for their losses in the event of an Arab boycott.
¹⁴
“Geert Wilders is evil, and evil must be stopped,” Doekle Terpstra, a former trade union leader, declared. “It is important that the indigenous Dutch, too, rise in order to stop Wilders,” he added, announcing the establishment of a “resistance movement against Wilders.”
¹⁵

The Dutch police provided pre-printed forms that people could use to press criminal charges against me.
¹⁶
Authorities sent letters to all Dutch municipalities warning that the release of my film could provoke tension.
¹⁷

In one notable attack, Henk Hofland, the former editor of
NRC Handelsblad,
the Netherlands’ leading liberal newspaper, called for the lifting of my police protection. “Then he will be able to contemplate the fate of those whom he puts at risk,” he said.
¹⁸
Hofland, who had been named “Journalist of the century” by his colleagues in 1999, apparently believed that people who warn that Islam is dangerous should be punished by exposing them to that very danger. Note that Hofland did not deny the existence of the danger—otherwise he would not advocate making me experience it.

Due to the seething reaction to reports about
Fitna,
releasing the movie became my own ordeal. I repeatedly had to postpone the film’s release because no network, public or private, would air it, even though 40 percent of the Dutch population indicated they wanted to see it. Networks would normally be scrambling to reel in such a huge audience, but of course, airing a movie doesn’t normally place networks at risk of attack by Muslim fundamentalists. Non-Dutch networks were equally afraid to show the film, so I decided to launch
Fitna
over the internet. YouTube, however, refused to host it, as did Network Solutions. Fortunately, LiveLeak, a British-based video sharing website, courageously accepted the film.

Two days before
Fitna’
s scheduled debut, Islamic organizations took me to court in order to block the release. Unsure how the court would decide, I released the movie twelve hours before it was to rule on the case. (In the end, the court permitted the release of my film.) On March 27, 2008,
Fitna
was released on LiveLeak in both English and Dutch. Seen by three million people within its first three hours, the film became one of the most widely viewed Dutch movies ever. It is now available in dozens of languages.

The Dutch Islamic community reacted relatively calmly to the film’s release. There were some minor riots and a few cars were set on fire, but even Dutch Islamic organizations said the movie was within the boundaries of the law.
¹⁹

Not everyone showed restraint, however. Within an hour of
Fitna’
s release, Prime Minister Balkenende issued a statement denouncing me, declaring that the movie “equates Islam with committing atrocities. We reject this interpretation. The vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence. In fact, the victims are often also Muslims. Hence, we deplore that Mr. Wilders has released this movie. We do not see what purpose this movie serves but to offend the feelings of others.”
²⁰

In fact, though Balkenende implied otherwise, I never said that “the vast majority of Muslims” condone extremism and violence. I simply warned that the existence of peaceful Muslims should not blind us to the fact that Islam is a violent ideology that should be rejected by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. That, and that alone, is the message of
Fitna.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also blasted
Fitna,
suggesting I had no right to make a film this offensive to Muslims. “I condemn, in the strongest terms, the airing of Geert Wilders’ offensively anti-Islamic film,” the UN boss said. “There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free expression is not at stake here. I acknowledge the efforts of the Government of the Netherlands to stop the broadcast of this film, and appeal for calm to those understandably offended by it. Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility.”
²¹

The European Union issued a similar statement, warning that freedom of speech “should be exercised in a spirit of respect for religious and other beliefs and convictions.... We believe that acts such as the above-mentioned film serve no other purpose than inflaming hatred.”
²²

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono banned me from ever visiting his country again for the rest of my life, while his government warned that it would block YouTube in Indonesia if
Fitna
appeared on it.
²³
In a particularly pathetic display of groveling, the Dutch ambassador in Jakarta, Nikolaos van Dam, received Ismail Yusanto, leader of the Indonesian branch of the Islamic fundamentalist group
Hizb ut-Tahrir
, which was demonstrating in front of the Dutch embassy. Van Dam explained to Yusanto that my views “do not represent the official opinion of the Dutch government and the majority of the Dutch citizens,” and that protests should be directed at me instead of the Dutch government. Yusanto rejected the argument and demanded that the Dutch government ban
Fitna
and punish me.
²⁴

One of the most extreme responses came out of Jordan, where a court threatened to issue an international arrest warrant against me for “discrimination, insulting religion/the prophet and inciting hatred.”
²⁵
In an op-ed piece, I asked the Dutch government to protest Jordan’s threats to prosecute a member of the Dutch Parliament for his political views. I pointed out that Jordan is not a democracy and has no independent judiciary. “Nothing happens in the Hashemite Kingdom without the acquiescence of the King,” I wrote. “King Abdullah II is a direct descendant of the barbaric prophet Muhammad. That explains a lot.”
²⁶

Back in the Netherlands, I faced a litany of legal cases over
Fitna.
One of these complaints, seeking €55,000 ($72,700) in damages, was filed by Sheikh Fawaz Jneid.
²⁷
He is the imam who had cursed Theo van Gogh and implored Allah to make him suffer in a sermon given a few weeks before van Gogh was murdered.
²⁸
He had also cursed Ayaan Hirsi Ali, imploring Allah to give her brain and tongue cancer.
²⁹

On June 30, 2008, the public prosecutor’s office in Amsterdam declared that it would not prosecute me for
Fitna
or for other statements I made about Islam and the Koran. “The fact that statements are hurtful and offensive to a large number of Muslims does not necessarily mean that such statements are punishable,” it stated. “It is true that some statements insult Muslims, but these were made in the context of public debate, which means that the statements are no longer of a punishable nature. The Public Prosecutor has also concluded that there is no liability to punishment for inciting hatred or discrimination.”
³⁰