Geert Wilders:  The Dutchman and the Qur’an

by Arsalan Iftikhar

ONCE UPON A TIME in a happy place called The Netherlands, there was a little Dutch cherry-picker named Geert Wilders. After growing up in the land of Rembrandt and tulips, Geert one day decided that he wanted to become a politician and help the people of Holland by becoming one of their elected leaders.

While his friends became doctors and lawyers, our cherry-picker Geert one day found himself a member of the Dutch parliament. Instead of representing the multicultural and diverse Dutch population, he decided one fine day that he wanted to be the political leader of the most right-wing, anti-immigrant nationalistic party that has ever graced the halls of The Hague, which is also, fittingly, the judicial seat of the International Criminal Court (also known as the ICC or War Crimes Tribunal).

Alas, it seems that our cherry-picker has never been fond of dark-skinned Muslims who have made their homes in the cities of Holland over the years.

According to Statistics Netherlands, an autonomous Dutch agency that provides statistics to the government, Muslims living in the Netherlands totaled almost 920,000 in 2003, with almost 6 percent of the total Dutch population.

In the greater Amsterdam metropolitan area, Muslims now represent over 12 percent of the city’s total population.

Aghast that those who were not blond (like himself) were going to somehow erode Dutch culture and tradition, our cherry-picker Geert decided that he was going to produce a movie about the Quran — the holy book for over 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide.

His movie, Fitna (Arabic for “division” or “strife”), is a 15-minute Internet movie dedicated to defaming Islam by juxtaposing cherry-picked Quranic verses over incendiary sound-bites and graphic images of terrorist acts and their aftermath.

The cherry-picker’s movie begins with the ominous “ticking clock” sounds and the cartoon image of the Prophet Muhammad with a “bomb turban,” which sparked the Danish cartoon controversy in 2005. As the movie clock ticks down, you can see the fuse on the “bomb turban” lit as the rest of the movie focuses on “quoting” chapter and verse from Islam’s holy book to show the true “violent” nature of Islam.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende rejected the film, saying, “The film equates Islam with violence. We reject this interpretation. The vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence. In fact, the victims are often also Muslims.”

Our Dutch cherry-picker should be afforded the full protection of the law to express his beliefs without any fear of violence. As for his silly film, it should be held to the standard set by Dutch law, which has certain restrictions on speech that is defamatory, libelous or insults a group of people on the basis of their race or religion. Prime Minister Balkenende has also publicly stated that if the film is judged to have violated Dutch law, then his government has the duty to enforce its legislation.

Anyone who knows anything about our cherry-picker Geert and his geopolitics (like the Danish cartoon controversy) knows that this film is a direct attempt to incite violence by Muslims and help fan the flames of Islamophobia. Any reasonable person can see that this movie was meant to rabidly spit in the face of Muslims and blatantly insult Islam.

Nonetheless, the main difference between this and the Danish cartoon controversy is that history has taught us that cooler heads should prevail this time. For many people, the global community learned a stark lesson from the Danish cartoon fiasco.

Both Muslims and non-Muslims alike know that this silly exercise by our right-wing cherry-picker should be used to springboard the next generation of interfaith and global human dialogue and not fall prey to his xenophobic and sophomoric movie bait.

Going back to our Dutch fairy tale story, our cherry-picker Geert found it very difficult to find an audience for his bait-filled ignorant movie because the Dutch government understood that Geert had perhaps picked one too many cherries this time. A testament to public diplomacy and interfaith dialogue; this storyteller’s sympathies go out to the Dutch people.

The majority of them, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are good, hard-working people who get along with their neighbors and just want to go about their lives in peace. These people are caught between the extremists on both sides who are out to stir up angst and mistrust to springboard their own silly political agendas.

Despite being filled with hurtful and demeaning messages to his own fellow citizens that he sadly represents in parliament, it’s truly a testament to the strength of a democracy when people can freely share their opinions in the public arena. Unfortunately, our Dutch cherry-picker had his fingers crossed for a negative response by purposely disrespecting others simply because of their religion. By doing so, our dear cherry-picker is ignoring the core democratic values of freedom and justice dear to all of us; Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

After the dreadful response by some Muslims over the Danish cartoon controversy, it has become abundantly clear where the cherry-picker’s movie should be placed within our global priorities. With an infinite abyss of death in Iraq, the dreadful human suffering of Darfur and other human-rights atrocities occurring around the world, the global Muslim community knows that right-wing knuckleheads like our little Dutch cherry-picker should not even be given the time of day.

For only when our global community denounces every form of racism and intolerance in existence today can we make extremist dinosaurs like Osama bin Laden or right-wing cherry-picker extremists like Dutch MP Geert Wilders, completely and utterly obsolete.

And on that glorious and fine day, we will finally be able to live happily ever after.

Originally published in Islamica magazine in April 2008.