As I was following the ridiculousness that is the film called Fitna, I thought to myself that a perfect response to Widlers’s naive cut-and-paste strategy would be to turn it around and make a similar film about the Bible and instances of violence perpetrated by some Christians. The purpose, of course, would not be to argue that the Bible promotes violence, but to reveal the fallacy of Wilders’s shallow cause-and-effect analysis. Even as I wished I had the time and ability to make such a film, I decided that there were certainly many others out there who’d think similarly.
And so I was pleased to discover Schism (click to watch!), through an article on Slate about Saudi blogger Raed al-Saeed who made this film in response to Fitna. Raed is mature enough to not merely retort against Wilders, but to undermine his project itself by applying the same strategy to different content matter. How is it possible, I wonder, that a young Saudi blogger is more sensible than a Dutch parliamentarian? So much for enlightened Europe! (Turns out, by the way, that there was another video response to Fitna, a short film called Almouftinoun.)
Of course, I don’t think the question of religion and violence and causal relationships between the two, if any, are settled. I have actually been planning a series of posts to address this, as I’ve come across a number of interesting readings on the topic. There’s a lot to think about here!
