Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

ISLAMOBULLIES FORCE SHUTDOWN OF GEERT WILDERS' FILM - "FITNA"

Update 3/31/08 - LiveLeak has restored the film "Fitna."  Michelle Malkin comments .

Update 3/29/08 - The film is available here at Google video and here .  Michelle Malkin offers a news update and more video locations.  Wikipedia has a good overview of the film and the controversy.    A European website offering on-going coverage is Gates of Vienna, see e.g. here and additional posts.

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Mark Steyn posts the update:

Geert Wilders' film is a hit - over 1.5 million views in English, over 2.5 million in Dutch last time I checked - but it's nevertheless been yanked by LiveLeak, with the following statement:

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers. This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else.

Indeed. The Internet will keep Fitna alive in odd corners hither and yon, but only to those who actively seek it out. In the wider world, it goes without saying that such a film is unacceptable, and that this time round the pre-emptive rage (as Diana West

GEERT WILDER'S FILM ON ISLAM IS FINALLY OUT

Update 3/28/08  - Geert Wilders' film yanked  due to Islamobullies.

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-The film was greatly feared by European governments and elsewhere because of its anti-Islamist thrust. Douglas Murray has important things to say  (HT: the Corner):

Well Geert Wilders' film 'Fitna' is finally out, as of last night, and so far there is no need to retire to the bunker.  At the time of writing there's been a bit of rioting in Karachi but Holland itself is still standing if - thanks to its government - slightly cowed

The film itself. . .  click here for the full 15min version - is well worth seeing.  It isn't for the faint-hearted: footage includes some of the most barbaric acts committed by the jihadists. But there's no burning of the Koran or ripping up of the Koran, or any of the other allegedly 'shocking' things which the Dutch government and others revealingly predicted would be in the film.  The film simply shows what the Koran says and then shows footage of certain Muslims carrying out those words to the letter.  To this extent, anything which people find shocking in the film should be put at the doors of Mohammed and certain of his followers, not Wilders.