Fitna - Clear and Simple

When we hear that we must understand that the 'moderate Muslim' is not for the radicalist ways of jihad, then we, as a society collected of individuals, come to the point where all the excuses given for wanton murder and Private War waged across the globe in the name of Islam and jihad must come down to one very clear and basic view.

Part of why that view is necessary is given a first and strongest view in Geert Wilders' short film Fitna. Looking at the Wikipedia entry for Fitna, we see the following:

Fitna is an Arabic word, generally regarded as very difficult to translate but at the same time is considered to be an all-encompassing word referring to schism, secession, upheaval and anarchy at once. It is often used to refer to civil war, disagreement and division within Islam and specifically alludes to a time involving trials of faith, similar to the Tribulation in Christian eschatology. The term originally referred to the refining of metal to remove dross [1], but became common in apocalyptic writings and is often used to refer to the First Islamic civil war, in 656–661 CE, a prolonged struggle for the caliphate after the 656 assassination of the caliph Uthman ibn Affan. The Second Fitna, or Second Islamic civil war, is usually identified as the 683–685 CE conflict among the Umayyads for control of the caliphate. The third one refers to the taifas in the end of the Caliph of Córdoba's rule.

This is a meaning beyond simple trial or test, and hits straight to the heart of the problem in trying to apologize or veer off from confronting a religion that puts violent ideas and ideals into action. Within Islam, then, those that utilize violent ways and means are practicing something beyond jihad: they are practicing Fitna upon their fellow Muslims.

They do so by radicalizing their views and holding ahistoric views of their religious past in order to glorify it beyond all bounds of reason. When brought to an unreasoning and unreasonable height, one that cannot be touched by reason but only by passion, those seeking to cleans Islam of those who are considered 'moderates' is done by instilling fear and hatred of all of Islam. Their aim is global domination, but to get the foot soldiers to accomplish this they need to go beyond simple disdain or verbal neutrality of their fellow believers. To do that they attack those outside the religion and proclaim them all as the enemy of Islam if they will not come to it.

Every time we hear an excuse to act in a barbaric fashion and it is put into terms of someone else's fault, be it Israel, Arab Nations hosting Western groups, or even some ancient grievance against the Crusades we see Fitna at work. By not denouncing these things as unreasonable, by giving cover to acts of inhuman carnage Islam is not only speaking to those outside of it but is holding up a mirror to itself and letting those who do NOT actively support the violence and destruction: "This is your fate if you do not join us."

Those threats are made clear time and time again in a Nation called Iraq. Today, and for years, the radicals of Islam have not been solely targeting those from the west, from Nations with liberal and democratic views, from Nations that have thrown off the shackles of tyranny and point to a better and brighter future through peace and cooperation of Nation with Nation. No these seeking to help OTHERS rebuild their Nation and society from the outside are not the only target. Those radical elements now target the common man and woman and child in Iraq, be they Sunni or Shia, Arab or Kurd or Yezidi, they are all targets now and open to the vile hatred and disgust of those siding with radical and totalitarian views about Islam.

These radicals not only strike in New York City, Madrid, London, Israel, India, Australia and even into China. No, these radicals kill their own in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Somalia, Sudan, and Morocco. The gun they turn on others and the bombs they detonate, the havoc they cultivate is against all of those that will not see the world in their way and the goal of these bloody butchers is anyone who does not agree with them. Their hatred, their disgust and their cruelty knows no bounds of religion or culture or ethnicity: they have declared themselves the enemy of ANY who will not agree with them.

The short film of Fitna, while localized to the Netherlands, is global in its voice: those practicing these evil ways hold to a singular belief that is their OWN and they use Islam as the cover for it. Many sects of Islam have different views of those exact, same pages that are read, and have shifted from the external struggle to the internal and seeking to show that such struggles are universal. Those quiet voices are drowned out by the bomb blasts, the screams, the rain of blood from shockwaves visited upon everyday men and women of all beliefs, all classes and all ethnicities if they do not bow down to those seeking pure and absolute power over everyone.

Hearing of this film and its release on the 'net I utilized tools I had found for downloading such things as I knew it would not be up long and if others could not keep it and protect it, I would have my copy for the coming times of cowardice.

One tool is Orbit downloader, which has the ability via its Grab function to analyze a web page as it is loaded and identify the sources of rich media and allow you to download them for yourself straight from that source.

Another tool available for taking many different formats of video and audio and quickly compiling them to something that can be played on a stand-alone video player is DVD Flick. While it does not have the rich media editing capability of some other tools, it offers the 'quick down and dirty just get it to something easy to use' concept for those things you want to share with others via physical media.

A good alternative video/audio player for one's computer is VLC media player by the folks at Video LAN. It also has some functionality on sharing media across a network.

Another good tool for sharing rich media over a network is TVersity, which is relatively simple and straightforward.

These all have the benefit of being absolutely FREE for download.

To protect speech that others wish to stop, that those willing to use violence and destroy not only civility but civilization are willing to kill to end, to ensure the basic freedom to express yourself and have it heard and remembered these are simple and yet vital tools for capturing and distributing media that is in danger because it not about conspiracies... it is about truths others are willing to kill to suppress. Somehow the conspiracy theorists get plenty of airtime and very few assassinations visited upon them, while those wishing to say 'this is wrong and here is why' get targeted by those who can and will kill them if they do not recant the 'evil' of speaking their mind.

When corporations and cowards in the media will not even support their OWN, then you know that they are willing to submit to any power able to threaten them.

They are half-way to surrender already, and no longer having freedom.

For temporary security, like 'moderate Muslims', they live in silence.

And if they will not believe in what the radicals want, they, too, will end up like the common men, women and children around them who have been slaughtered.

Dead.