These are two fundamentally distinct events, yet their interpretations often intersect: on one hand, the ban on broadcasting in Lebanon the Franco-Iranian animated film by Marjane Satrapi, “Persepolis”. On the other, the online release of the highly controversial short film “Fitna,” created by the extremist Dutch MP Geert Wilders. In the first case, the film adapted from the comic book won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Festival. In the latter, the Dutch government, along with the European Union and the international community — including the UN Secretary-General himself — condemned this film. Furthermore, the Cannes-awarded film presents a fierce and ironic critique of the Shah’s regime as well as the oppressive conditions under which Iranian women live in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Meanwhile, “Fitna” is a provocative and vehement accusation against radical interpretations of the Quran, directly linking them in the film to terrorist attacks, such as those committed against the Twin Towers in New York in September 2001.
Continuing with the first case, the Franco-Iranian film was censored by the Lebanese General Security under the leadership of Wafic Jezzini, who is reputedly close to Hezbollah. In the second case, in the name of freedom of expression, the “YouTube” and “Google Video” platforms kept it online, whereas the British hosting site “Liveleak,” where it had been viewed by more than 3 million users, removed it due to “serious threats” to its staff. Western cultural circles were particularly disturbed by the banning of “Persepolis,” dismissing, like the Lebanese Minister of Culture, the pretext provided by the Director General of Security of “denigrating Iran.” However, they remained silent on a more clearly audible argument, albeit less convincing, that its distribution in the current situation in Lebanon could “add fuel to the fire.” These are the same Westerners who fear, in the near or distant future, vehement reactions against their political and economic interests in Muslim countries enraged by the showing of “Fitna.”
Consecration and legitimate defense of a cultural work on one hand? Scorn thrown on a miserable and insulting provocation on the other? Criticism, in one case, on the fringes and by means of the issue of women? A direct attack, in another, against the very heart of monotheism? Ultimately, there is only one common point between the Director General of Security and Western officials: fear of reactions.
Fortunately, for now, the majority of Iranian Muslims who have seen Satrapi’s film greatly enjoyed it, and representatives of the Muslim community in the Netherlands and the West have met Wilders’ film with a noble “shrug of the shoulders.” It seems that when needed, this “silent Muslim majority” knows how to make its voice heard, so to speak, its “inner certainty” to borrow Hegel’s phrase about faith. Both sides show on this occasion a significant evolution of their approach, more concerned, to rethink the idea of the Lebanese Advisor to UNESCO, Bahjat Rizk, in a recent article in L’Orient Le Jour, of a genuine “cultural and religious pluralism” that goes well beyond the “political.”
Likely the result of a maturation – cleverly and patiently initiated here and there by people like President of the Jewish-Muslim Friendships, Marouane Bouloueddine – this community of the Prophet’s faithful may have just received the consecration of their efforts: according to the figures from the highly official 2008 Statistical Yearbook of the Pontifical State, published in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s press organ, Islam has become, with 19.2% of believers on the planet, the world’s largest religion. This indeed suggests it is mature and responsible.
