Fitna

“This day the disbelievers despair of prevailing against your religion, so fear them not, but fear Me (Allah)! This day have I perfected for you your religion and fulfilled My favor unto you, and it hath been My good pleasure to choose Islam for you as your religion ( The Quran, 5:3).”

At the time I posted the link under the “Anti Islam Film” title most Malaysians have yet hear the about ‘Fitna’ a 15 minutes short film made by a Dutch-man named Geert Wilder. But today it seems that all have known about it, and some, including me, may have satiate their curiosity by making the extra effort watching the film via the internet. 

Having watched it, I find that the movie is no more than a slide presentation that show verses from the Al Quran together with video footage and images of events that has been labeled as Islamic Terrorism and Extremism. A lame effort of a man whose hatred against Islam has robbed him his reason, judgment and respect.  

This movie has caused world wide fiery objections. Bans against Dutch goods have been imposed by many Muslim dominated countries, Dutch embassies assaulted, death sentence proclaimed against Wilder etc. Muslims or not, most who are in the right state of mind condemn it stating that that is a false and perverted interpretation of Islam. 

The Prime Minister of the Netherlands commented, “The film equates Islam with violence. We reject this interpretation. The vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence. In fact, the victims are often also Muslims… …We therefore regret that Mr. Wilders has released this film. We believe it serves no purpose other than to cause offence.” (Read further) 

I have to agree with the above comment. 

Without having able to catch a breath after the ‘Fitna’ controversy, the Muslim world has been shocked yet again from news that the author of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie, has staged a four hours long play of that novel. It seems that one by one, without pause, Islam is being ridiculed at the world stage. How should we Muslims react on this? Should we take it to the streets, chanting death slogans, burning effigies and what not? 

To me, if we continue to show our discontentment with regards to all those media attacks poised against Islam by the acts, but not limited to, mentioned above then we would be no better than this Wilder guy, confused and confounded by misinterpretation of Islam. 

Rather than making violent retaliation why not tackle this matter the way Rasulullah would tackle it, which is by “Hikmah’. In order for us to determine what ‘Hikmah’ is then we need to refer to the Al Quran and the prophet’s Sunnah for answers, which I verily believe none will condone any act of atrocities or terrorism. Islam is a religion of peace, and maybe it’s about time that we Muslims portray it as it is supposed to be.