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Dutch MP's anti-Islam film gets barbs, cheers on YouTube

by Glenn Chapman Fri Mar 28, 6:13 AM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Snippets of an Islam-bashing film by Dutch far-right MP Geert Wilders were causing a stir on YouTube, where they triggered cheers and barbs among thousands of viewers. ADVERTISEMENT

Wilders made good his pledge to post a controversial film critical of Islam on the Internet and the video quickly spread from British video-sharing website www.liveleak.com to globally popular YouTube.

YouTube, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, posted a warning that scenes from the video clips were potentially offensive and required users to confirm they are adults before allowing the clips to be viewed.

The Wilders film, titled "Fitna," features violent imagery of terrorist attacks in New York and Madrid intertwined with Koranic texts.

Clips showed the 17-minute movie opening with images of a Koran and the text of a sura from Islam's holiest tome, which translated from Arabic implores the faithful to "terrorize the enemies of Allah."

Portions of the film ranging from two to 10 minutes quickly logged thousands of views at YouTube and inspired critics to post lambasting commentary or post their own videos critical of Wilders.

"Don't blame the Quran, but blame the people who do these things," wrote a Netherlands YouTube user going by the screen name mV33rs.

Some postings slammed Wilders as racist or crazy.

Opening scenes of "Fitna" were followed by images of airplanes flying into the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001, with sound bites from phone calls to the emergency services on that day.

The film continues with grizzly images of bloodstained bodies in the aftermath of the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 in which 191 people were killed.

"This, unfortunately, is a daily pollution of Europe," YouTube user Growlcub of Denmark wrote in support of the film.

Despite pressure from The Hague not to release the movie, Wilders pushed ahead. Dutch officials fear a repeat of violent protests that erupted when European newspapers printed cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

"Every word we heard in this film, aside from the Koran, were by leaders of the Islamic world," a US YouTube user named Claranicole wrote in a chat forum beneath one of the "Fitna" clips.

"These are facts, we should stop being afraid of them, we are allowing them to intimidate us, its time that we stand strong against them."

YouTube told AFP it strives to balance freedom of expression with the standards set by its video-sharing community.

"We strive to provide a community where people from around the world can broadcast and express themselves by sharing videos in a safe and lawful manner," the firm said in a written response to an AFP inquiry.

"The diversity of the world in which we live -- spanning the vast dimensions of ethnicity, religion, nationality, language, political opinion, gender, and sexual orientation, to name a few -- means that some of the beliefs and views of some individuals may offend others."