Foxnews.com reports:
Nations around the world are protesting the release of a Dutch lawmaker's
anti-Islamic film.
Australia condemned Geert Wilders' 15-minute film, titled
"Fitna," or "Ordeal" in Arabic, Sunday with the foreign minister calling it
"highly offensive."
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith rejected the film's
premise of equating Islam with acts of terror and violence.
"It is an
obvious attempt to generate discord between faith communities," Smith said. "I
strongly reject the ideas contained in the film and deplore its
release."
"Fitna" was posted online Thursday but removed from the site,
LiveLeak.com, a day later. It has since been widely dispersed on other
file-sharing sites.
The European Union issued a statement Saturday saying the
film —that portrays Islam as a ticking time bomb aimed at the West — serves no
other purpose than to inflame hatred. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also
has condemned the film, saying there is no justification for hate speech or the
incitement of violence.
Despite their condemnation, the European
leaders defended the right to freedom of speech and called on Muslims to react
peacefully.
In the Middle East, Iran has summoned the Dutch ambassador to
Tehran to discuss the film, Reuters reported. A senior diplomat from Slovenia,
which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was also called to
the ministry in Tehran over Wilder's film.
Jordanian lawmakers are taking
more severe diplomatic measures and demanded their government cuts ties with the
Netherlands. Forty-eight lawmakers in the 110-seat parliament have also called
for the government to dismiss the Dutch envoy.
Pakistan's foreign ministry on
Friday summoned the ambassador of the Netherlands in Islamabad and lodged a
"strong protest", according to AFP. It has stepped up the security of the Dutch
consulate and businesses in Karachi fearing protests over the Internet release
of an anti-Islam film by the far-right Dutch MP.
And in Asia, hundreds of
Indonesian students took to the streets Sunday in protest, according to AFP,
after a minister called for protests. The students carried posters demanding
that authorities shut down websites carrying Geert Wilders' film.
It's funny, but I do not recall such protests and condemnation when the videos of the beheading of American Nick Berg and others were splattered all over the internet. And now these same actors who sat silent, now wish to condemn a perfectly reasonable exercise of free speech? They want to condemn a movie placing blame for acts such as the aforementioned beheadings, but do not have the nerve to condemn the people responsible for the beheadings? And I'm supposed to take these people seriously? I condemn their condemnation. And I cyber-roshambo them for their remarkable ignorance and cowardice.
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