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Last update - 17:10 14/03/2008 Dutch brace for new anti-Islam film directed by far-right leader By Cnaan Lipshitz Tags: Islam, Geert Wilders, Holland The Netherlands is feeling the pressure of the release in two weeks of an explosive short film entitled "Fitna" about the Koran, directed by the leader of the opposition's far-right Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders. The Dutch government last week declared a heightened state of alert for fear of a wave of Islamist violence when the film is released, in a potentially aggravated repeat of the riots that in 2005 broke out in Denmark and across the Muslim world following the publication of a derogatory cartoon depicting Mohammed in a Danish daily. Though he describes his once-peaceful society as a "pressure cooker" on the verge of spilling over into religious violence, Dutch immigration expert Paul Scheffer is nonetheless optimistic about immigrant absorption in the Netherlands. To him, the conflict is "indicative of integration." As for Israel's immigration experience, Scheffer told Haaretz that "it cannot be copied." Advertisement Scheffer, a prominent writer and professor of urban sociology at the University of Amsterdam, says he supports Wilders' film as "a legitimate exercise of free speech." "So we have a parliamentarian who wants to become a filmmaker," Scheffer said after delivering a lecture at Tel Aviv University on immigration in Europe. "Let him do what he wants and we'll defend his freedom." Conceding that Wilders "may be taking Holland hostage because there are threats of violence," Scheffer nonetheless postulated Dutch society will "refuse to accept self censorship." His support for Wilders' film is not very common among Dutch academics, many of whom have referred to Fitna as a disruptive provocation which the Netherlands could do without. This position seems to mirror the one held by the Dutch government, whose efforts to legally ban the film recently failed, and whose prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, warned against the film's implications. To be sure, Scheffer says he does not support Wilders' political outlook, which favors banning the Koran and limiting the number of mosques in the Netherlands. He goes on to call Wilders a "populist" whose political philosophy contains serious contradictions. And yet, even if Wilders' style is less reserved, the two men seem to agree on certain key issues. Fundamentalism within the Netherlands' large Muslim community has created much controversy and outrage following the 2004 assassination of film director Theo Van Gogh. So-called "honor killings" of women are also a painful friction point. "I am all for giving religious freedom to immigrants," Scheffer says, "but I also insist on making it clear that with this freedom comes the obligation to preserve the freedom of other groups." In an interview with Haaretz from January, Wilders said his efforts to curb "the Islamization of Holland" were not intolerant, but were "an attempt to preserve Dutch liberalism from people who seek to destroy it." In his latest Dutch-language book, Het Land van Aankomst ("the land of arrival") which he published late last year, Scheffer takes a critical approach toward Dutch multiculturalism - a concept which nurtures ethnic diversity over national cohesion. He says the Dutch used to have a strong emotional attachment to the notion of multiculturalism, but this sentiment is beginning to weaken ? "and that's a good thing." Disdain for multiculturalism is another issue where Scheffer and Wilders seem to be in agreement. In January, Wilders warned that "multiculturalism is killing us." He was reacting to Queen Beatrix's Christmas speech, in which she demonstrated the attachment Scheffer was referring to, when she called for promoting multiculturalism. "This complex attachment to multiculturalism owed to several reasons, including a guilt connected to the Netherlands' colonialist past," Scheffer says. "And it's also connected to a sense of guilt vis-à-vis what happened to the Jewish community in the Holocaust." Eighty-five percent of Holland's Jews died in the Holocaust. The country's Nazi party had some 100,000 members. Wilders also says he sees this as one of the reasons for "a misguided policy of appeasement" toward some radical elements in the Netherlands' Muslim community. But whereas Wilders seems to be taking the alarmist point of view, according to Scheffer, the unrest in Holland is an encouraging indication of an immigrant absorption process and a newfound "willingness to confront serious issues." The atmosphere of tolerance that was created in Holland during the 1960s and 1970s was not genuine, Scheffer explains, and should therefore not be mourned. In fact, he says, it encouraged "mutual cultural avoidance" on the part of immigrant and native communities alike. Integration, he argues, involves conflict and change. "When change does not occur, then it's a sign we have cultural avoidance." The Netherlands, with its population of one million immigrants, can be seen as "a laboratory where many of the questions visible everywhere in Europe are debated," according to Scheffer. By contrast, Wilders says he sees the conflict as threatening the country's ability to survive as a free society. "Wilders urges the Muslims to respect our constitution and the separation of state and church, but in the very same sentence he says he's against building more mosques, and advocates banning the Koran," Scheffer complains. "I think he should be publicly confronted about this internal confliction more often and more effectively." One the explanations that the scholar offers for the Netherlands' immigrant problems sounds uncomfortably similar to Israel's relationship with its population of approximately 200,000 foreign workers and asylum-seekers. "People who came in as 'guest workers' in the 1960s thought they would stay a while, earn some money and go back home," Scheffer said on his visit, which was arranged as a joint initiative by The Royal Dutch Embassy in Israel together with Tel Aviv University. "They didn't think of about the possibility that their children could become Dutch. They lived in a state of suspension and they didn't even learn the language." Dutch society, Scheffer said, shared in this "mutual illusion" to find itself "enormously changed without ever preparing." During his numerous visits to Israel, Scheffer says he has had occasion to observe some classic characteristics of immigration-related conflicts in Israeli society. Yet, "despite the dividing lines, there's an overall purpose for Israel, which gives it a very different connotation. I don't think this purpose can be found in Germany or France or the Netherlands," he says. One of Scheffer's listeners at the lecture suggested a common enemy might help Dutch society become as cohesive as Israeli society. "It appears we're trying to create one," the scholar replied Bookmark to del.icio.us   Undressed to impress Yeshiva student strips in a supermarket to protest sale of chametz during Passover. Ante up Hamas offers truce in return for a Palestinian state along Israel's pre-1967 borders.   1.   Iran bans 1700 individuals from running in politics 16:36  |  Jon 14/03/08   2.   good job 17:26  |  hahaha 14/03/08   3.   film 17:28  |  the truth 14/03/08   4.   Multiculturism, a missnomer 18:15  |  Buzaglow 14/03/08   5.   time for the reverse flow to happen 18:29  |  v hardman 14/03/08   6.   Multiculturalism#2 19:08  |  Buzaglow 14/03/08   7.   Europe can now enjoy their own Shoah 19:33  |  Laughing survivor 14/03/08   8.   #6 Buzaglow....how about self-segregation? 20:11  |  Lynn 14/03/08   9.   #6 Buzaglow....how about self-segregation? 20:11  |  Lynn 14/03/08   10.   Syrian Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun 20:16  |  Karl 14/03/08   11.   How different than the 20th century 20:29  |  Mark Lincoln 14/03/08   12.   How different than the 20th century 20:29  |  Mark Lincoln 14/03/08   13.   Foolsday Film ???? 21:25  |  Jacob 14/03/08   14.   to no 7 laughin survivor 22:05  |  Tina 14/03/08   15.   To Dutch and his Pal cohorts... 22:30  |  Stephen. 14/03/08   16.   FOR CENTURIES..... 23:41  |  THE TEACHER/INSTRUCT 14/03/08   17.   I am Dutch and I want to see this movie 00:03  |  Aaron 15/03/08   18.   The Dutch are like the rest of Europe, living in a fools paradise 01:45  |  Euro Dhimmi 15/03/08   19.   #10 Karl 02:02  |  Hasan 15/03/08   20.   #16 Aaron 02:09  |  Hasan 15/03/08   21.   #15 Stephen. 02:13  |  Hasan 15/03/08   22.   Islam is a religion of peace. 02:18  |  K 15/03/08   23.   Reply to Hassan. 02:37  |  mike davis 15/03/08   24.   #19 - 21; Hassan 03:17  |  Doc Holliday 15/03/08   25.   To Aaron (16) 03:27  |  Rory 15/03/08   26.   To mike davis 03:32  |  Rory 15/03/08   27.   #15 Hasan. Every attack on Israel is an attack on the jews. 03:40  |  Stephen. 15/03/08   28.   sad 06:47  |  L 15/03/08   29.   anti islam ? 08:00  |  omar 15/03/08   30.   THANK YOU HOLLAND 08:50  |  MJ 15/03/08   31.   To Mark Lincoln Houston Texas and Aaron the Netherlands 11:05  |  Shoshana Thomasson 15/03/08   32.   is not Islam 11:17  |  dani.a 15/03/08   33.   Hasan 11:23  |  Aaron 15/03/08   34.   Mark Lincoln concludes that driven aggressive people fight 12:12  |  x-ray 15/03/08   35.   THIS SHOULD BE INTERESTING, ESPECIALLY IN VIEW OF 13:37  |  Nechama 15/03/08   36.   would it be ok if it were anti-zion film? 14:36  |  of course not 15/03/08   37.   zion is a religion of peace? look at all the peace it brought ME 14:39  |  really? 15/03/08   38.   #36, #37 zion is not about immigration 15:17  |  libra 15/03/08   39.   # 36 /37 03:53  |  danny 16/03/08   40.   where are the moderates 03:59  |  danny 16/03/08   41.   racial website 23:55  |  z 20/03/08   42.   Y islam?? 20:26  |  Dr.taty 28/03/08

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