Posted on 03/31/2008 3:45:37 PM PDT by PROCON
The World Council of Churches has condemned a Dutch parliamentarian’s provocative new film which accuses the Quran of inciting violence.
-snip-
The director of the global ecumenical body’s Program on Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation criticized Geert Wilders’ short film “Fitna” as "a clear case of Islamophobia." The word ”fitna” is an Arabic term that is sometimes translated as “strife.”
"Through graphic images, the filmmaker depicts violent extremism without any attempt to distinguish it from mainstream Islam,” Premawardhana said. “Extremism is a problem for most religions and needs to be countered through interreligious dialogue."
Wilders, who is leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, launched his short video on the Internet last Thursday to the outcry of Muslims around the world. In the film, images of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and bombings by Islamic extremists appear alongside quotations from the Quran.
European Union foreign ministers, in a statement, condemned the film and expressed their support for the Dutch Government, which has distanced itself from Wilders’ film.
"The film equates Islam with violence and this view is sharply rejected," the 27 ministers stated.
The EU also said, however, that the film did not surpass the boundaries of freedom of expression and that those offended by its content should not react violently.
"Feeling offended is no excuse for aggression or threats," the ministers said.
"Muslims, Christians and people of all convictions and beliefs must live together in peace and mutual respect."
The film has caused offence in a number of majority-Muslim countries including Iran, which called the film heinous, blasphemous and anti-Islamic.
A delegation of Dutch Christians and Muslims traveled to Egypt last week in an effort to limit the possible damage caused by the film. According to Ecumenical News International, they went with the message that the large majority of the population, the churches and Muslim communities in the Netherlands are opposed to the film, but that free speech means that the Dutch Government is powerless to block its release.
According to members of the delegation, the spiritual leader of the world’s Sunni Muslims, Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, expressed his discontent to them during a half-hour meeting.
"A single member of parliament in the Netherlands insults one-and-a-half billion Muslims. That is intolerable,” they quoted the Sheikh as saying.
Bas Plaisier, delegation member and general secretary of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, said after the meeting with Tantawy, “Yet again it has become clear to us how the response to this issue is very emotional in the Arab world. This film is playing with fire.”
Earlier in the month, the WCC issued the commentary “Learning to Explore Love Together,” in which the ecumenical body urged Muslims and Christians to find common ground in love for God and for one’s neighbor.
The commentary followed the "Minute on Our Religious Imperative to Foster Sensitivity and Reconciliation in Shifting Society” released by the WCC’s Central Committee in February. The document encourages churches to “work towards reconciliation and healing” through dialogue with Muslims that would lead communities "not only from hostility to peaceful co-existence, but also to celebrations of our common life."
"Say, Mo'Ham-Mud, just because a good portion of the Quran is given over to language inciting violence and Islam is correspondingly violent, should we accept the World Council of Churches' insistence that there could not possibly be any connection between the two?"
Mo'Ham-Mud: "Grunt, grunt, grunt..." (Defecates)
How can you denounce something you’re not allowed to see?
Doesn’t the Anti-Christ have his membership in the WCC.
Looks like the communists have weighed in on Wilders’ film.
lets see, a film which claims that islam is violent is being protested by muslim with - threats of violence!!!
Hey folks, you can’t make this stuff up!
I laugh at the fools who have it on their cars.
These people are so full of crap. Dialog only works if both sides agree that it is a useful tool to bridge differences and then actually work to bridge differences. I'm not seeing Sheikh al Mohammed Blah Blah very interested in bridging differences. I see him interested in shutting people up thru an organized campaign of intimidation and violence.
From what I can see, Islam works a lot like an organized crime racket. In NJ and NY, it goes: "You obey and we'll try to keep our passionate union members under control. You have to understand how seriously they feel about this." In the Netherlands it goes "You obey and we'll try to keep our passionate mosque goers under control. You have to understand how seriously they feel about this."
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I wish someone would come up with a different version of that one that shows the islamic symbol like a Pac Man, gobbling up the other symbols!
You'd die of laughter if you were where I live! :(
Wasn't the WCC helped into existence by Joe Stalin? I'm sure I read that somewhere.
Michael Frazier
why is it the surrender monkey priesthood is the most blind to the world?
it it their left wing delusionism? Is it their lack of families? (wives, children, etc...)
or did some saudi pay them to “dance monkey dance”
I don't know either, but my guess is yes!
notice they do NOT MENTION IT IS MAINSTREAM ISLAM’s SPOKES PEOPLE who are depicted in the movie.
notice they do NOT MENTION IT IS ISLAM IN ITS OWN WORDS without commentary.
They show beheadings of the innocent.
They show the women executed on a soccer field.
The cries of an inocent killed in the name of islam.
The proclamations that the white house will be islamic.
these idiots did not even see the 15 MINUTE movie.
FOOLS.
Too stupid to realize useful idiots like them are first to die.
“Too stupid to realize useful idiots like them are first to die.”
No, first to convert.
Then they have their lttle pink triangles on the other side of their bumper.
The WCC is totally apostate. The “ministers” are essentially athiests.
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