Geert Wilder.

[Sir Niall of Essex-sire]

This may be an extremely contraversial subject so apologies to anyone who may be upset at me for bringing up this subject, however i am a great believer in the freedom to discuss subjects in an open way. I have had to recently watch this film Fitna as part of Religious, Philosophy and Ethics courses i teach and the debates/forums/inter faith dialogues i also attend. I think this film is extremely provotative and he quotes mainly from Sura's to find 'justification' that may be used to commit violent acts in the name of Islam or Jihad. The Suras and Hadiths are works of Islamic Imans and are not the orinigal texts of the Islamic faith. The film however raises some interesting points, Islam is political at its core and there is some justidication of violence in the Quran itself.

But the context of these texts must be taken into consideration, the time of these texts the Judo Christian faiths were in the asscedence and the oringal lands in which Muhammed was living in were tribal in areas and ruling. These tribal areas were i constant dispute and the areas needed uniting for any type of peace to ever start in the areas. The writings in the Quran imo promote unity, promotes an us and them mentaly which in those times was useful for uniting the tribes. But in the modern day context it can see to be somewhat provoctive of war.

My view is that although Islam may have provotative writings, their are very few religions that dont, possibly exculding Buddhism although even Buddhism has been used as justification for certain acts of violence, most notably in Southen India and Sri Lanka. Christianity has texts regarding homosexulaity which are extremely contraversial, the most striking i think is the one is which a man others rape of his two daughters to a man comteplating homosexual sex. Religious texts are writtern in context of the time, tbh did those who wrote really believe they would be used to form rules 2000 yrs on, could they even of comtemplated the changes in the world since then? Most probably not. Islam is not a peaceful religion many religions are not peaceful, the coruption of Islamic texts is a problem and the world becomes more westernised it will only get worse, which leaves us with the problem of cultural realitivity. But thats another post.

This film i think is dangerous as it promotes a distorted message, but no more that the Websites of Hamas and other podcasts by clerics favouring are. It should of been aired but people should take it with a pinch of salt and realise that not all muslims are violent its a small minority that are.

[Bethlehem]

Good intelligent post sir. I have to say that I was very conflicted over our governments decision to ban this euro MP from visiting the UK. On one hand he is an elected EU politician, elected by a western democratic process. But on the other hand his views and his message could be taken as incitement..? Its a hard thing to balance free speech when sometimes what that person is saying is unhelpful to futhering a harmonious community. But i believe we should never silence people from speaking out - if their views are outlandish and twisted normal people don't listen to them anyway.
I suspect the real reason he was denied entry was due to pressure from the muslim council of Britain and various UK-based islamic pressure groups, and our goverment trying its hardest to appease them. Which i think is a bad thing. This country has a proud history of free speech no matter how wacky. Remember all those demos up north when Rushdie wrote 'satanic verses'? all those muslims on the street supporting the fatwa calling for his death and the book to be banned. Our goverments response was to tell the Iranian Allyatolah that every British citizen has the right to say whatever they want and that there was to be no ban on the book. Could'nt see that happening today in the present social/political climate.

[echc1]

proof that freedom of speech is dead in the uk....as there has to be views from BOTH sides otherwise no-one gets a say....personally i work to "fuck politics,let's get wrecked"