I just completed a phone interview with a FoxNews reporter (whom I will not name at this point) about Fitna. It was a bit strange that I gave long replies to his questions and then only heard him typing very briefly as I was speaking, but maybe he is a fast typist. In any case, I will be watching closely for misquotes, half-quotes, distortions, etc. -- I've had plenty of experience of this from reporters in the past.
But in the course of the conversation he told me that LiveLeak had put Fitna back up. However, searching around LiveLeak just now, I can't find it. That means nothing, since I am generally hopeless with computer issues, but does anyone know anything about this? Is the film back up at LiveLeak?
UPDATE: It's true. See here.
SECOND UPDATE: I apologize for being over-suspicious, although given what I've seen reporters do in the past, I don't think the suspicions were completely groundless. In any case, here is the article (thanks to all who sent this in), and it is generally OK -- I am not misquoted.
Yep -
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103
** 30/3/2008: Liveleak Update **
On the 28th of March LiveLeak.com was left with no other choice but to remove the film "fitna" from our servers following serious threats to our staff and their families. Since that time we have worked constantly on upgrading all security measures thus offering better protection for our staff and families. With these measures in place we have decided to once more make this video live on our site. We will not be pressured into censoring material which is legal and within our rules. We apologise for the removal and the delay in getting it back, but when you run a website you don't consider that some people would be insecure enough to threaten our lives simply because they do not like the content of a video we neither produced nor endorsed but merely hosted.
Robert,
Here:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103
Cheers
Worst interview I've seen in years from Spiegel Online. Spiegle used to be really spot on, but that was a long time ago. Now they're also on the Islamo-multiculti bandwagon:
Wilders inerview with a true imbecile:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,544347,00.html
Worst interview I've seen in years from Spiegel Online.
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at March 31, 2008 11:19 AM
-----------------------------------------
Wilders ate their lunch on that interview. He was spot on for every question.
There is on FITNA story at FoxNews here
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343351,00.html
but no reference to you yet, Robert.
Maybe you didn't feed him the PC line he was hoping for.
From the Spiegel Online interview:
To the interviewer's first assertion, I suggest:
"The only dialog that needs to happen is between Muslims. Anything else is a distraction."
Sheik yer'mami: Here is an article from NRC Handelsblad (translated into English on Der Spiegel's site) about the film.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,544112,00.html
"Freedom of expression, one of the fundamental concepts of every democratic state, can cope with this amateurish attack."
How is the publication of a film (but apparently not the calls to censor the film) an "attack" on freedom of expression?
Just read the worst, most lopsided report on FoxNews. Yes, the Muslims are angry. Yes, the dhimmi governement PC-types are astonished and blustering.
And?
Where's the part about the film containing these very quotes by actual Muslims?
I am very disappointed by the dhimmis who write this stuff.
Robert said
How does that work? Can you make your own recording/transcript of an interview with a reporter? Would reporters refuse to cooperate with this? That way at least you'd have proof of the misquote.
Although, I guess if the trust has broken down to that level, the only response should be "No comment".
Here are 2 Robert Spencer quotes on this Fox story:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343351,00.html
Some observers, however, supported the release of the film. "If Western institutions are not willing to take risks, then our lives as free societies are coming to an end," said Robert Spencer, the director of JihadWatch.org, a website critical of radical Islam. ...
... Not all were reassured by the affirmation of free speech, and were instead troubled when LiveLeak initially pulled "Fitna" in response to threats. "If the price [for free speech] is ever too high, then that’s the epitaph for freedom in the West," said Spencer.
And this gem also from Foxnews...
reporting that the FBI considers America's biggest domestic terror threat comes from...
from...
are you ready...?
Environmentalist wackos!
new Sierra Club motto:
"Slay the SUV wherever it may be, lie in wait along the interstates, smite their oversized hoods and luggage racks, for the Polar Bear is all knowing and merciful".
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343768,00.html
Nice that they gave you the last word, no less :)
Not good enough. I wrote this to the editors at FoxNews.com:
So because Yvonne Haddad says there are some verses that are accommodating to other religions, that makes it so?
It can be easily shown that many of those verses are abrogated by those that come later in the Qu'ran, and any Islamic scholar (not Haddad, who said "It is a fact that there are some Arab Christians and Muslims who are still waiting for the Jewish people to apologize for what they have done to the Palestinians") will tell you so (if they can stop lying to Western inquirers long enough to draw breath).
I will bet you that Robert Spencer spoke on point about many of the facts of this film, and the only thing you saw fit to quote was his wish for Western civilization to stand behind free speech.
You allow the apologists and Muslim organizations to speak on point about the film's merits...where is Mr. Spencer's analysis?
I trust you, FoxNews, and I know you will report this story on its merits, not on the outraged whinings of affronted and pretend-affronted peoples.
full name
city and state
Eco-terrorists? I don't pay any attention to Fox News, and I don't think that I will start now!
Eco-terrorists, Apple Kaabahs...I can't tell what is "news" and what is meant to be a joke anymore.
I make sure to print on the front and back of paper...I wonder if the FBI is watching me?
hehehehehehehehehehe
Posted by margheri:
...I wonder if the FBI is watching me?
Because of the ire this website and Robert in particular draw from Islamists I count on it being monitored by federal agencies, either officially or unofficially, and direct many of my comments to them.
"It's a hatchet job," said Yvonne Haddad, a professor of Muslim-Christian relations at Georgetown University. "In the Koran there are verses that are very accomodating, very open, very pluralistic to other religions. . . . It was not a balanced representation," she said........
It is interesting that she is promoting this rosy picture of Islam. Further search of her turned up the following:
202-687-2575
202-687-8376
haddady@georgetown.edu
wadi.haddad@verizon.net
167 ICC
Yvonne Haddad, Ph.D., is Professor of the History of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Professor Haddad's fields of expertise include twentieth-century Islam; intellectual, social and political history in the Arab world; and Islam in North America and the West. Currently, Professor Haddad is conducting research on Muslims in the West and on Islamic Revolutionary Movements. She also teaches courses on Muslim-Christian Relations and Arab Intellectuals.
Yvonne Y Haddad
Title:
Professor, History of Islam
Department:
PRINCE ALWALEED BIN TALAL CENTER FOR MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING
http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/haddady/
How deep is this rabbit hole?
Perhaps you weren't misquoted, but the movie was misrepresented. It is not, as the article's title declares, "anti-muslim". At most it is "anti-Islam". But I think more correctly, it is "anti-qur'an" or "anti-jihadist interpretation of qur'an". It is a call for muslims of good will to labor to extract the egregious aspects the Qur'an from contemporary islamic teaching and to stand with the west against creeping Islamification.
This is not an anti-muslim agenda. Many muslims are very much in tune with this. They did not come to the west, only to find themselves mired in the backwaters of Dar al-Islam again. The film is supposed to normalize their view. Treating it purely as discriminatory and "anti-muslim" makes it very difficult for muslims to stand with Wilders. The media is not helping by fanning these flames. I would have expected Fox to know better.
Not only did they NOT misquote Robert, they gave him the last word.
Of course, it was Fox News. The outcome would have certainly been different had it been any other major news organization.
Good article with FOX, Robert. Anytime your thoughts are out there in the MSM, it's a good thing.
The "Anti-Muslim Film" headline is moronic but the rest of it isn't too bad by msm standards (admittedly pretty low). I doubt that the reporter who talked to Robert also got to write the headline.