Fitna and Faith: Pursuing A Christian Response To Geert Wilders’ Controversial Film - Part 1

What Is Fitna?

Fitna, the Arabic word loosely translated “division,” “strife,” or “dissension” (with a religious connotation) is the title of Dutch politician Geert Wilder’s extremely controversial film which antagonizes against European islamization, especially in the Netherlands. See the International Herald Tribune’s Dutch lawmaker releases anti-Quran film for a brief news-media report about the film and the ensuing international response.

Fitna and Christian-Muslim Relations

I am not a political blogger, and I do not write this post for political purposes. Rather, my interest in Fitna arises from my current research into Christian-Muslim relations, especially the recent A Common Word initiative. Accordingly, I’m exploring this issue from the perspective that American Christians need to consider how political films such as Fitna (and media portrayals of Islam in general) impact both individual Christians’ and the institutional church’s views of Muslims in America.

Watch Geert Wilders’ Film

Fitna was published online on 27 March 2008. Due to death threats, the film was removed from its original sources. However, Fitna is now available on multiple servers such as the following two:

(Warning! This film is very graphic in nature.)

What Has Fitna to do with Christian Faith?

Stay tuned as I plan on following up with further posts, including:

• a brief overview of the international political reaction to Fitna,
• with an eye to how such political reactions influence the international religious response to Fitna,
• and suggestions on what ethical factors American Christians ought to be thinking about in pursuit of a thoroughly Christian response to Fitna in our American context.