The Anger of Compassion

Fighting for Fitna

This is not my defense of Fitna.

My "defense" of Fitna consists of: "Fuck off. Please refer to Zenger, Jefferson, et al."

My only purpose here is to respond to those mindless PC loons in this country and elsewhere who speak of Geert Wilders as indulging in "hate speech." Frankly, I think "hate speech" consists of any adult using ridiculous anti-conceptual language as "hate speech," but I've lost that fight already. No, I am simply pointing out that if it is hateful, it didn't start with Wilders.

Wilders quotes from verses in the Koran, and then cuts to video of events in contemporary history. I am simply going to compare the quotes he employs in his film to those in two Korans I own.

Let me say something about that: I have lived in Saudi Arabia and in Egypt. I am not a Muslim, nor have I ever been one, but my experience is that people are people, everywhere you go. Sounds trite (although not as baneful as "hate speech."), but that's what i've found. Years before, I served as a Marine in Beirut, Lebanon. Yes, the news out of Beirut was horrific, back then... but most people there were decent, too. So I'm far from being one who advocates a general war with the peoples of the Middle East, but the notion of "slandering" Muhammad or "insulting" the Koran is insulting to me and to my values. Muhammad is dead, so he cannot be slandered, he cannot be hurt by the words of Geert Wilders or Theo van Gogh or anyone else. As for insulting the Koran, it would be unspeakably rude of me to walk down the hall and speak ill of the Koran to a Muslim colleague. But if, in public discourse, it is claimed that honestly speaking one's mind about the Koran is "insulting," well, then....too bad.

I've chosen two Korans for the comparison: the first is an easy one to find in the United States, used on many college campuses (in fact that is where I first saw it, decades ago): The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall. Pickthall was a British convert to Islam and a novelist admired by, among others, H.G. Wells. His translation is available worldwide -- my own copy was purchased in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for 35 riyals.

The second Koran is a beautiful book, given to me by one of my students in Jeddah, himself a mutawa in the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces. It contains the entire text in Arabic and a translation (with commentary) into English. It lists itself as "Revised & Edited by The Presidency of Islamic Researches, Ifta, Call and Guidance," and was printed by the King Fahd Holy Qur-an Printing Complex in Al-Madinah (Medina).

I am not qualified to judge the accuracy or the quality of either translation, or of any other translation. Also, I don't know the source of the translations used by Geert Wilders. But these two I've gone to for comparison seem to possess certain imprimaturs, if that terms can be applied to a non-hierarchical religion such as Islam, so I feel safe in using them for comparison.

The first quote we see in the Wilders film is from:

Surah 8, verse 60:

Wilders: "Prepare for them whatever force and cavalry ye are capable of gathering,
to strike terror, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies, of Allah and your enemies"

Pickthall, page 143: "Make ready for them all thou canst of (armed) force and of horses tethered, that thereby ye may dismay the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others beside them whom ye know not."

Royal Saudi edition, pages 486-487:

Against them make ready
Your strength to the utmost
Of your power, including
Steeds of war, to strike terror
Into (the hearts of) the enemies,
And others, bedisdes, whom
Ye may not know, but whom
Allah doth know.

Yes, they sound different, the three translations. But as I was taught in college, to translate is to betray. Do the meanings of these three translations seem radically different to you? Does the text used in the Wilders film seem distorted, outrageous, unfair?

Surah 4, verse 56: "Those who have disbelieved our signs, we shall roast them in fire, whenever their skins are cooked to a turn, we shall substitute new skins for them, that they may feel the punishment: verily Allah is sublime and wise."

Pickthall, page 84: "Lo! Those who disbelieve Our revelations, We shall expose them to the Fire. As often as their skins are consumed We shall exchange them for fresh skins that they may taste the torment. Lo! Allah is ever Mighty, Wise."

Royal Saudi edition, page 228:
Those who reject
Our Signs. We shall soon
Cast into the Fire:
As often as their skins
Are roasted through.
We shall change them
For fresh skins,
That they may taste
The Chastisement: for Allah
Is Exalted in Power, Wise.

Surah 47, verse 4: "Therefore, when ye meet the unbelievers,
smite at their necks and when ye have caused a bloodbath among them
bind a bond firmly on them"

Pickthall, page 361: "Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds:"

Royal Saudi edition, page 1560:
Therefore, when ye meet
The Unbelievers (in fight)
Smite at their necks;
At length, when ye have
Thoroughly subdued them,
Bind (the captives)
Firmly

Surah 4, verse 89: "They but wish that ye should reject faith
as they do, and thus be on the same footing as they,
so take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah
But if they turn renegades, seize them and kill them wherever ye find them
and take no friends or helpers from their ranks"

Pickthall, page 87: "They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye be on a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them."

Royal Saudi edition, page 240-241:

They but wish that ye
Should reject Faith,
As they do, and thus be
On the same footing (as they):
So take not friends
From their ranks
Until they flee
In the way of Allah
(From what is forbidden).
But it [sic] they turn renegades,
Seize them and slay them
Wherever ye find them;
and (in any case) take
No friends or helpers
From their ranks: --

Surah 8, verse 39: "Fight them until there is no dissension
and the religion is entirely Allah's"

Pickthall, page 141: "And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah."

Royal Saudi edition, page 480:

And fight them on
Until there is no more
Persecution,
And religion becomes
Allah's in its entirety

So do they differ much, these translations? I don't think so. Has Geert Wilders distorted anything? I don't think so. Is he -- and his film, Fitna, worthy of defending?

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. As I post above, NO BURKA ON FREE SPEECH.

The right to free speech is absolute.

Posted by Craig Ceely at April 8, 2008 12:14 AM