So, Whaddya Think?

Despite all the brouhaha on Fitna, I watched it on YouTube twice. I'm not one to comment on something before actually seeing it myself or knowing it from a reliable source. My friends have also watched it, and there hasn't been any kind of unrest. What I want to know is whether all those people who condemn the short film have indeed watched it.

And my friend asked me, "whaddya think of it?" My brain worked up quite an answer, "Well, it shows that both sides need to introspect" Now now, let's not exaggerate things here. Those hateful clerics do exist in the real world, they do incite hatred and war. Just see, even in Indonesia we have those kinds of freaks. There are groups who feel proud to bring hell to Earth in the name of "Islam". If a documentary on these groups or persons were to be made, my bet is that it wouldn't be so different from Fitna.

To me, the real problem of the movie is that it took bread crumbs to portray the whole bread: chunks of verses to portray the Qur'an, chunks of muslims to portray all muslims. As a book, the Qur'an shouldn't be fragmented and presented in the way Wilders had done. He took fragments of the Holy Book, took the most literal translations, and match it with those terrorist acts. It would be like taking fragments of the Bill of Rights to justify the war in Iraq.

In addition, the main thing that makes me feel disrespected is that Wilders took some crazy bearded, robe-clad guys calling themselves "muslims" who preach hate to their audience as the typical muslim. Hey, I'm nothing like that and neither are most normal muslims! Those freaks are a whole world away from moderates, the majority of muslims. In fact, they are trying to infect us with their hateful ideologies.

IF the film specifically said that "there's a minority in the muslim world that hijacks Islam for violence, ...so on and so forth..., and therefore it is everyone's responsibility to get them to the right track again"; IF the film didn't use Qur'an verses out of context and interpretation; it would be a good reminder to muslims to introspect. It would serve as a wake-up call to make us see that there are groups bearing the name of "Islam" that are trying to destroy the religion itself. These groups are exploiting Islam to justify dictatorship and totalitarianism. They are using their brand of Islam to stop muslims from progressing to the future. We need someone to shout really loudly and make us take a look at these phenomena.

That's what I (currently) think of the movie. There're still aspects that I may discuss in the future through this blog. This problem has many sides to it, and those sides are being stretched to all directions.