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This article is about the film Fitna. For the article about the Arabian word, see Fitna (word)
Fitna is a film created by Dutch politician Geert Wilders that will offer a critical view on the world of Islam and the Koran. It is expected to be released in March 2008. The name comes from the Arabic word Fitna which is used in Islam to describe "disagreement and division among people"[3]. (Originally the word was used to describe testing the authenticity of gold with varying methods.)
At the moment it is unclear who will publish the final film to the public, but Wilders has stated he will make the film available for free through the Internet site YouTube.
edit] Expected content
Wilders has said the film is literarily "accurate" and will elaborate on verses from the Quran accompanied by documentary footage from the world of Islam.[4]
Wilders has called the film "a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamization" [5]
edit] International worries
The Dutch government has expressed great concern about the upcoming film release and has made immediate emergency evacuation plans available to all its consulates and embassies worldwide and is hardening security measurements around military installations abroad. [6]
It is feared that the film will lead to violent extremist Muslim mob protest such as previous protests against the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons that were displayed in the Danish newspaper 'Jyllands-Posten' in 2005.[7] This Muslim violence resulted in the burning of the Danish embassy in Syria and violent Muslim uprises around the globe, as well as various hate messages against America and Europe and the killing of catholic clergy and people from different ethnic origins.[8]
Egypt is closely monitoring the situation.[9][10] The European Union has alerted its diplomatic missions around the world to expect a reaction to the release of the film.[11]
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has officially declared that France will provide every necessary support to aid the Netherlands in the suppression of any Muslim violence that might be the result of the film. [12]
NATO has said it fears that the consequences of the Fitna film will affect the safety of troops stationed in Afghanistan. [13]
edit] Critique and censorship
In February 2008, Pakistani regulators banned YouTube for several days due to a blasphemous video clip believed to be a trailer for Fitna. Google eventually complied to the Muslim protest and the material was removed due to being offensive to Muslims worldwide.[14][15][16] In their attempt to censor, Pakistan accidentally caused the YouTube site to be unavailable worldwide for hours.[17] [18]
Critics and fighters for free speech as well as various European governments argue the decision made by Google was taken in fear of terrorist attacks against Google headquarters.[citation needed]
Indonesia is afraid tensions will rise to a new level, resulting in a clash of violence between Muslims and non-Muslims due to the release of Fitna.[citation needed]
edit] Threats and consequences
Zabihullah Mujahid has stressed that the Taliban will increase their attacks on Dutch military and humanitarian peacekeepers in Afghanistan, if the film was ever aired.[19]
Wilders received a fatwa by Al-Qaeda, calling all Muslims around the world to assassinate Wilders in the name of Islam. [20]
Syria's Grand Mufti, leader Ahmad Badr al-Din said that if Geert Wilders pictures the image of a burning Koran in his film, the Dutch people will be held responsible and possible attacks against Western public interests are not out of the question.[21]
Iran has threatened it will review its diplomatic stance with The Netherlands, should the film be aired. [22]
Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands is worried about possible repercussions for Dutch citizens and economic interests.[23]
The publication of the film is currently under investigation by the Dutch ministry of Justice in an attempt to prevent the film from being published. [24]
Wilders accuses Dutch leader Minister-President Balkenende of succumbing to professional cowardace for capitulating to Islam. [25]
On March 6th 2008, the Dutch government has raised its national terroristic threat level from status 'limited terroristic threat' to 'substantial terroristic threat' because it fears Muslim terrorists will launch attacks against European targets because of the film.[26]
edit] Planned release
Wilders stated that the film is ready and will be broadcast in March 2008.[27]
At this stage it appears that no Dutch broadcaster wants to show the film in its entirety, without interruptions. Wilders has said that he would "Rather have [the film] entirely on the internet, than half on television". Press centre Nieuwspoort now appears to be willing to show the film, a solution Wilders called "second best".[28]
A preliminary version of the film's website was put online on March 5th, 2008[29] though there is not yet an announcement on the means of distribution of the film. FitnaTheMovie.com is hosted on the same server as MSCcompany.com, the makers of Purina pet foods and PuppyChow at Network Solutions and is capable of streaming video.[30] There is no broadcast company willing to distribute the work and internet distribution has wider scope than distribution to movie theaters.
edit] Possible hoax
It has been suggested by some Dutch blogs that the film is a hoax and that it's used by Wilders to provoke responses by suggesting that a film that is critical of the Islam will be made. [31][32] Some have suggested that it could be an April Fools joke if Wilders announces on April 1st that no film exists and that the responses so far are enough to prove his point.
edit] References
Wikileaks logo 
The Wikileaks website, which publishes sensitive and censored material submitted by anonymous contributors, has experienced unprecedented levels of Internet traffic today through public interest. This interest has caused the website's servers to be unable to meet the demand of over 164 gigabytes of download traffic within twenty-four hours, leading the site to be temporarily inaccessible. 

The film , directed and produced by Dutch politician , has caused controversy for its presentation of Wilders' negative view of Islam as being committed to world domination and acts of terrorism. A trailer for the film was widely uploaded to many video sharing sites, including ''YouTube'' and ; this met with anger from Islamic nations, the debacle culminating in Pakistan's government ordering the nation's internet service providers to block the YouTube site. This caused YouTube to be inaccessible to residents of other countries whose Internet service providers' equipment automatically began routing traffic to YouTube via Pakistan Telecom's servers, due to their ban accidentally propagating to other providers. Ultimately, YouTube acquiesced to the demands made by Pakistan and other organisations, in exchange for access being restored. The site '''' originally hosted  a copy of the trailer, which has now been replaced with a video message stating that the lives of their staff have been put at risk due to hosting it. 

As a consequence of this censorship, Wikileaks mirrored the video, receiving heavy access traffic through hosting one of the few copies remaining on the Internet. ''Wikinews'' has obtained an exclusive statement from a representative of Wikileaks, affirming that the site has not been taken off-line due to external pressure, and is instead suffering technical problems due to this high demand. The representative gave the following statement:


Wikileaks gained recent public attention in the ''Bank Julius Baer vs. Wikileaks'' lawsuit, following publication of leaked documents that were alleged to provide evidence of money laundering, tax evasion and asset hiding by Swiss financial institution Bank Julius Baer. The documents are said to have been uploaded by Rudolf Elmer, a former chief operating officer of the bank's Cayman Islands division, who was sacked following an investigation by the bank that involved polygraph testing. Wikileaks has not, however, stated that Elmer was the source of the documents. Bank Julius Baer sought an injunction against the operator of Wikileaks' domain name, Dynadot, to remove access to the site from the Wikileaks.org domain; this was granted by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The site was consequently inaccessible through this domain, although access could be obtained through many alternate addresses. Following activity by organisations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, who sought to defend the right to free speech that Wikileaks relied upon, the lawsuit was dropped and access was restored.