Not quite equivalent
This is rich: Dutch public broadcaster KRO was planning a film on the violent passages of the Bible, which get trotted out on a routine basis, as if they prove something about the violent passages of the Qur’an that jihadists around the world today are using to justify violence against unbelievers. But — just as I argue in my book Religion of Peace? — the comparison is not really legitimate. These producers discovered that on their own: “After extensive research, linking Bible quotations with real political events and acts of violence however produced an insufficient basis for a thorough journalistic production.”
Nonetheless, the denial will continue: learned analysts the world over will continue to maintain that the problem of global jihad terrorism has nothing to do with the Qur’an and Islam — and this denial will continue to postpone intelligent analysis of what we can do about this problem.
“Public Broadcaster Axes Film on ‘Violent Bible,'” from NISNews (thanks to Future Man):
THE HAGUE, 29/02/08 – Public broadcaster KRO has dropped plans to make a Biblical variant of MP Geert Wilders’ short film on the Koran. “After exhaustive discussion, journalists on various editorial staff have decided not to make a film on the Bible,” KRO said in a statement.
“The aim of the project was to make a contribution to the debate on the method that Geert Wilders – according to Wilders himself – wants to apply in his film on the Koran. This aim could not however in the view of KRO journalists be achieved satisfactorily.”
In his short film Fitna, intended to be shown in March, Wilders wants to show gruesome events said to be inspired by the Koran. KRO, nota bene itself a Catholic broadcaster, wanted to show that such a film could also be made about the Bible.
The film was “one of the plans for participating in the debate that Geert Wilders has aroused with his proposal to ban the Koran. After extensive research, linking Bible quotations with real political events and acts of violence however produced an insufficient basis for a thorough journalistic production.”