Attempts To Ban Fitna: The Movie

Transcript from this link:

Islamic leaders in the Netherlands will ask a court later today to ban a film which accuses the Koran of inciting violence. Dutch MP Geert Wilders launched his film on the internet after local distributors refused to release it. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende added his criticism of the film, saying it was offensive to Muslims.

"The film shows images of violent acts, and holds Islam and the Koran responsible for them. The government condemns such acts and those who commit them. The film equates Islam with violence, and we reject this interpretation. The vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence. In fact the victims are often also Muslims."

The film is called "Fitna", a Koranic term sometimes translated as "strife."

It intersperses shots of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, and other bombings blamed on Islamic radicals, with quotations from the Koran.

There have already been widespread protests against the film, and the governments of Pakistan and Iran have made their displeasure very clear.

NATO fears an explosion of Muslim anger could threaten the security of foreign forces in Afghanistan, which include some 1,600 Dutch troops.

Carl in Jerusalem said the following at his post, where I found the above video:

First of all, as far as I know, LiveLeak is housed on servers in the US or UK. How does anyone think a Dutch court is going to order a server in the US or UK to take it down? They might be able to order a UK server to take it down because of the EU, but I doubt most US-based servers would listen. Then again, given that Network Solutions declined to run the film and took down Wilders' site, I suppose anything is possible.

More important, at this point, I am sure the film has been downloaded to dozens, if not hundreds of computers throughout the world. While I'm not much of techie, there are many other bloggers who are techies, and I am sure they would continue to host the movie. And no Dutch court can stop them.

However, we also have this in yesterday's Washington Post, apparently before the release of Fitna: The Movie:

The top U.N. rights body on Thursday passed a resolution proposed by Islamic countries saying it is deeply concerned about the defamation of religions and urging governments to prohibit it.

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The document, which was put forward by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, "expresses deep concern at attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations."

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The resolution "urges states to take actions to prohibit the dissemination ... of racist and xenophobic ideas" and material that would incite to religious hatred. It also urges states to adopt laws that would protect against hatred and discrimination stemming from religious defamation....