Fitna - the movie

I have just watched the controversial film made by the Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders. ”Fitna” is an Arabic word that can mean strife, upheaval or civil war. With the combination of Qur’an quotations and images it creates the impression that Islam is a religion of terror and violence, and naturally it has caused a lot of reactions.

While the film claims to portrait Islam, in reality it only portrays a particular stream within Islam, a stream that has many names: Fundamentalism, islamism, extremism among others. There are as many sides to Islam as there are sides to the Christian civilisation. If we say that it is this violent kind of Islam that is the real Islam, we say the same as the islamists themselves, those who claim to be the only true Muslims.

Muslims can do the same to us if they want – and many do. The image most Muslims have of Christianity is a religion that occupies their countries, bombs their cities and kills their children. The ”Christian” countries are societies that permit immorality of all kinds and that are doomed to destruction.

”Do to others what you would have them do to you”, our Lord taught his disciples. If we want Muslims to speak truthfully about us, we need to be truthful when we speak about Muslims. Showing a one-sided picture is not being truthful. Muslims and Christians live side by side in many countries of the world. We must do all we can to live peacefully with each other. The movie ”Fitna” does not help create an atmosphere of peace.

On the other hand – Muslims who respond with treaths and violence to this film, only confirm the one-sided image people in the West have of Islam and Muslims – that Islam is a religion of violence and hatred. Muslim leaders in Norway have responded wisely to the film – condemning it as insulting and divisive, but denouncing violent responses.