Cahaya’s Rants

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today condemned the decision by a far-right Dutch lawmaker to post an anti-Islam film online.”We are very annoyed about this video. This is the result of misunderstanding of Islam, and of course there is some political motive behind it,” he said.

“If Muslims unite, it will be easy to take action. If we boycott Dutch products, they will have to close down their businesses,” he told reporters after officiating at an Islamic gathering.

“If the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims unite and say they won’t buy, then it (the boycott) will be effective,” he said.

The film Fitna (Discord in Arabic), featuring violent imagery of extremist attacks which it linked to verses from the Quran, was posted on the British-based website liveleak.com on Thursday.

Malaysia’s foreign ministry also slammed Geet Wilders for producing the film.

“Portraying Islam as a religion advocating extremism is not only misleading and erroneous but also blatant disregard and utter disrespect for Islam and the sensitiveness of the Muslim world,” it said in a statement.

Malaysia is a multi-racial country with a majority Muslim population.

Full story here.

Right thinking Muslims should use the film to ask themselves why non-Muslims are associating extremism with Islam.

The Koran clearly has passages in it that are used by radical Muslims to justify their acts of violence against Jews and infidels. Moderate Muslims should fear and condemn the actions of the radicals because in the eyes of the radicals those who do not follow their brand of Islam are not true Muslims.

In Iraq the Sunnis and the Shiites are killing each other because neither consider the other as true Muslims. The Wahabis hate both the Sunnis and Shiites.

Instead of getting “annoyed” and trying to speak for all Muslims, Mahathir should apologise on behalf of peace loving Muslims for the vicious acts of violent Muslims. Mahathir should use this occasion to explain that Malaysia’s brand of Islam does not subscribe to violent acts against other Muslims and non-Muslims. Mahathir should explain that even though there are passages in the Koran that can be construed as endorsing violence again Jews and infidels, Malaysian Muslims do not subscribe to those views. Mahathir should condemn the clerics in the videos who were encouraging violence against Jews and infidels.

But instead, Mahathir chose to be annoyed and offended. The people who should be offended are the non-Muslims who have to hear rhetoric that encourages violence on them.

Geert Wilders is only trying to raise awareness that Muslim extremists are using passages from the Koran to do violent acts. Geert Wilders has said many times that his problem is not with Muslims but with the violent ideology that can be found in the Koran. He is only trying to tell non-Muslims that they cannot continue to bury their heads in the sand and not acknowledge that certain passages in the Koran are being used by extremists when carrying out their violent acts.

When Muslims riot and start killing each other and non-Muslims, the claim “Islam is a Religion of Peace” flies in the face of such violence.

Fitna has been taken off LiveLeak but it can still be found elsewhere.