Fitna and the Death of Reason

Today marks a momentous and sad day in world history. We can now be censored for nothing —if Islam feels we might do something that offends them.

For several weeks the offensive and bigoted Dutch MP Geert Wilders has been promising the world that he will be releasing a fifteen minute flick called Fitna, which, in the spirit of the Danish cartoons, will inspire the Islamic world to arise in righteous indignation. and kill a few innocent people.

There have already been riots over the film, which no one has seen, and the NATO commander in Afghanistan has expressed concern the troops will “find themselves in the line of fire because of the film.”

The Dutch government has warned Mr Wilders that his film will damage Dutch political and economic interests.

In Amsterdam, where weed and hookers are legal, a thousand people gathered on Saturday to protest the showing of the film, which no one has seen.

A Dutch court has agreed to hear a complaint lodged by Muslim groups seeking to bar Wilders from releasing the film, and punish him for earlier remarks under hate crime laws.

It was to be released today on Fitna the Movie. But Network Solutions,whose servers are located in the United States, has suspended the site, pending investigation:



Until Sunday, the site had shown the cover of a Quran on a black background, with the text: "Coming soon: Fitna".

Nevermind that Network Solutions has no problem hosting Hizbollah's' website (see whois).

Google, not surprisingly, is in on it too. A search for “fitnathemovie.com” does not produce a hit for the official site.

Ironically, Wilders is no free speech advocate. He wants the Quran banned. But just because he is a dangerous nutcase, does not mean that everyone has to cower in fear of the jihadists.

When we give in to Islam, and seek to appease it, we sabotage the most important values that define Western civilization—freedom and reason.

A couple years ago the Pope gave an academic lecture on Reason and Faith at Regensburg. And it resulted in riots, protests and a few deaths. However, it was not really about Islam per se, but Reason.

Many things can be said about the Pope. But one thing that cannot be said, is that he is not a rational person who measures his words. He is amongst the top-tier elite of Western academic philosophers. Benedict sees Reason as being under siege.

On the one hand, the post-modernists contend there is no such thing as Truth. And on the other, it is being attacked by Islam, which believes Truth is beyond all Reason. Thus we have seen the alliance of the Left and Islamic Radicalism.

The Pope believes the Western concept of Reason to be different than that found in Islam. In the West, Reason is the capacity to doubt. It started with the scholastic questioning which made Socrates so unpopular in Athens. In Benedict’s view Christianity has always been subject to this tradition of doubt and questioning, and this has strengthened revelation and faith.

Benedict observed at Regensburg that the modern concept of Reason began with Descartes, who shifted the discussion from God to the individual. Descartes’ famous dictum “I think therefore I am,” changes the subject of the scholastic question--that is the existence of God. Rather than ask “Does God exist?” Descartes asks, “How do I know I exist?” To which the simple answer is “if I don’t, then who is asking the question.”

But in Muslim theological thinking, Descartes did not get it right. They would tell him “ahh—you have thoughts, and those thoughts must come from somewhere and where could those thoughts come from but Allah.” It is not “I think therefore I am.” Rather it is “I think and therefore is Allah.”

Reason, in the Muslim clerics' view, is a sign from God, an object that God has created and planted in our brains to show us God's presence. For example, if I say that as a reasoning girl I don't believe in Allah, the answer must be, "Aha! You are using your reason to doubt the existence of Allah, and the fact that you have reason demonstrates the existence of Allah, because if you have reason, someone must have given it to you, and that only could be Allah."

The Pope has a problem with the Muslim construct. If God simply placed Reason in our brain to demonstrate His presence to us, then we have no thoughts that God does not send us. It is as though God has planted a radio in our brain, and is simply sending us signals.

And then the problem is how do we know whether it is God or Satan that is broadcasting the signals?

We only know because we can subject faith to critical thinking and analysis. And this is what happened in the Western World. Reason is the Accusing Angel in the Heavenly Court.

But, there is no such concept in Islam, and no such concept on the Left either.

In Islam there is no Accusing Angel of Reason to put the beliefs of Geert Wilders (or the assumptive claim that he and his thoughts must be exterminated apriori) to a prosecutorial test, much less Shaira law or any of the ethical and theological precepts of Muslims.

And the Left, believing there is no such thing as Truth, nor an Accusing Angel of Reason, advocates appeasement and the suppression of ideas, if it is for the common good.

But now, with Fitna, we are irrationally censoring ideas, before we even know what they really are, simply because the Religion of Peace says they are probably erroneous, and will most certainly cause us harm and discomfort.

This is really an unprecedented step.

And it is a sad day for Reason.

Update: Network Solutions is now explaining that they took down the Fitna site because they feared violence.

Religion of Peace--- Violence????

Who would a thought it.

~Becky

--------------------------------------

UPDATE: A commenter indicated that Google was now listing the Fitna movie site. I checked it at 10:42 PDT, Monday, and it is now listed in the results--or at least what is left of it--Network Solutions still being too fearful. Of course, the intent was not to give any indication it existed when it was for real.

~Becky