Internet Co. Suspends
Web Site for Film Critical of Islam
Since 03-24-08
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200803/FOR20080324a.html
(CNSNews.com) - A U.S.-based Internet company has
pre-emptively suspended access to a Web site on which a controversial Dutch
lawmaker was planning to post a short film examining links between Islamic
terrorism and the Koran.
For the past several weeks, anyone typing into their Web browser the URL
fitnathemovie.com
would have reached only a black screen, an image of the Koran, and the words, "Geert
Wilders presents Fitna. Coming Soon." No other pages were accessible.
At the weekend, however, the hosting company, Virginia-based Network Solutions,
replaced the screen with a message saying it had received "a number of
complaints" about the site and had suspended it while investigating whether the
"content" violated its acceptable-use policy.
Wilders, leader of the right-wing Freedom Party which holds nine of the 150
seats in the Dutch parliament, registered the site late last month ahead of his
planned release of a 15-minute film which he said aimed to show how Islam's
primary text has been the inspiration in parts of the world for "intolerance,
murder and terror."
Media reports on the film -- whose title is an Arabic word used in the Koran,
translated as "strife" or "ordeal" -- prompted street demonstrations in several
Islamic countries, diplomatic protests, and warnings from the Dutch and other
European governments about an expected, possibly violent, backlash.
Earlier this month, a spokeswoman for Network Solutions said anyone unhappy
about any site it hosts could complain, and the company would assess the content
against its acceptable-use policy.
The policy includes a broad prohibition on obscene or harmful material that
includes "hate propaganda" and anything "profane, indecent or otherwise
objectionable."
The spokeswoman also sounded optimistic that the company, which manages some
seven million Internet domain names, could handle any denial-of-service or other
electronic attacks that may come its way "from anywhere for any reason."
Wilders said last week he planned to release the film on the Internet "before
April 1, and no, this is not an April 1 joke." His earlier attempts to get Dutch
broadcasters to screen it were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile an Islamic organization in the Netherlands has asked a district court
in The Hague to assess the film with a view to banning it. So far, Wilders has
refused to let Dutch government officials see the film.
Earlier, the lawmaker wrote that the controversy already caused by a film that
has yet to be seen by the public supports his argument that Islam is an
intolerant ideology with " no room for matters like self-reflection and
self-criticism."
Some European governments have voiced concern that Muslim anger over the film
could trigger a repeat of the violent protests that erupted in several countries
in early 2006 over the publication of cartoons of Mohammed.
Statements posted on the Web sites of Dutch embassies in a number of foreign
capitals make it clear that Wilders' views on Islam do not "represent the
perspective or policy of the Dutch government in any way."
In another damage-control effort, senior Dutch church leaders plan a visit this
week to Cairo, where they will seek an audience with Mufti Muhammad Sayyed
Tantawi, one of Sunni Islam's leading religious authorities.