Controversy has once again been spawned from the news that a Dutch website expected to be used to release a film that bathes Islam in a bad light has been shut down.
It is suspected that guidelines on hate language may have been breached. The right wing Dutch politician planning to release the fifteen minute film calls Islam the ‘enemy of freedom’ in the film and it is this type of language that has sparked furious protests among Muslims.
Amid fears of terrorist backlash, the Dutch government have disassociated themselves with politician, Geert Wilders, views. It doesn’t help that the film was entitled ‘Fitna’ which means ‘strife’ or ‘discord’ in Arabic.
Mr Wilders statement suggests that Fitna is the last warning for the West regarding the loss of freedom. The US hosting service, Network Solutions, has an ethical code that states that material in a website that is ‘obscene, defamatory, libellous, unlawful, harassing, abusive or suggest hate propaganda’ will be suspended and this is exactly what has happened ahead of the film’s release.
The Islamic world have yet to recover from previous insults against their beliefs that have hailed from the Dutch after a cartoonist poked fun at Muhammed two years ago and they feel there is currently a ‘witch hunt’ being levied against them.
Since news of this film emerged, the Dutch authorities have raised their terrorism alert level to ‘substantial’, the second highest level although there is no evidence of an imminent attack.
The internet has opened up the channels for everybody to voice their opinions and freedom of speech is something the West have always upheld as a human right. However, recent events in Holland highlight that lines must be drawn. Freedom of speech that incites one group of people against another is no freedom at all.
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