Brno: Muslim community screens Fitna

The Muslim community in Brno Monday organised an open screening of Fitna, a controversial film by Dutch deputy Geert Wilders that criticises Koran, in order to point to the danger of extracting various sections from religious texts and to start free discussion on the essence of Islam.


About 30 people attended the screening, Lukas Lhotan from the organising Libertas Independent Agency told CTK.


The Muslim community plans to organise further screenings of Fitna also in other cities, probably in Prague and Olomouc, north Moravia.


Open screenings of the film are also planned by the ultra-right extra-parliamentary National Party, which recently placed it on its website.


Most questions in the discussion that followed the screening Monday concerned Islamic terrorism and the threats by Islamic leaders in the media.


Munib Hasan from the Brno Islamic Foundation said that no one who spreads Islam by force is a genuine Muslim.


"The faith must be sincere. It is impossible to believe that this can be achieved using the sword. This would be no conviction," Hasan said.


He said the Brno foundation was one of the first to condemn the attacks on the USA on September 11, 2001.


In reaction to the opinion by some that Muslims should more adapt themselves to European culture if they want to live in Europe, Hasan said Muslims should mainly observe the laws of the countries they live in.


Source: Prague Monitor (English)

See also: Czech Republic: Mohammad cartoons crime

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