Submission: Part I

Submission is a 10-minute film in English directed by Theo van Gogh and written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a former member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy); it was shown on the Dutch public broadcasting network (available on YouTube). The film's title is a direct translation of the word "Islam".

The film tells the story of four fictional characters played by a single actress wearing a veil, but clad in a see-through chador, her naked body painted with verses from the Koran. The characters are Muslim women who have been abused in various ways. The film contains monologues of these women and dramatically highlights three verses of the Quran,(4:34 2:222 and 24:2) that authorize mistreatment of women, by showing them painted on women's bodies.

It is a political statement and indictment of those countries that allow honor killing to go on despite laws against them.

It is hard to speak about the state of women in Islam without being told to keep quite,sometime the ultimate price has to be paid.That is the nature of this film. It may not make for friends but it gets things in the open so that changes can take place so human rights can be respected. There have been very few films about Islam as a religion.I do not know of any about the human right tragedy in the Sudan.I wish to see more films about Islam but am afraid that filmmakers will be leery after this.That is why I hope that filmmakers will not be afraid of death threats,because information about Islam is needed especially since 911.WE must realize that the Dutch are very tolerant and that this atheist filmmaker did have a right to make films that is the bottom line.I hope that the film will energize Islamic men to correct abuses as much as they can.

Are there laws in Denmark against beating women? In most civilised countries, there are. This is what Hirsi Ali was expressing: that women are often abused in Muslim households and are often powerless to stop it. You may consider it blasphemous to fight for women's rights, but Hirsi Ali would disagree.

You call it propaganda... So is the Diary of Anne Frank (or any other book written about a person's experience) propaganda? It, like Submission, also describes the experiences of one person, as they experienced the world. Submission is an expression of what Hirsi Ali has seen/experienced. You insult yourself when you say it is generalising about all Muslims because nowhere in the film does it say every Muslim abuses every woman. Does every piece of work always have to represent everyone? If I write a play about a Dane, does he have to represent all Danes? If he commits a crime, are all Danes criminals?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (www.vpro.nl) has lived in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya. In my opinion, she understands what goes on in Muslim countries better than someone in Denmark. Furthermore, this piece is a combination of what happened to many women she encountered as well as herself. There were a few people who thought that Ms. Ali knows nothing about Islam. If you know anything about her, you would inevitably disagree. I commend you, gentlemen for not beating your wives... and ladies who are able to work in Egypt and other Muslim countries. In fact... I think you should write a play glorifying Islam's treatment of women (and hope you don't get stabbed). I just want to know why you think your experiences are representative of everyone else's in the Islamic world?

To conclude... even if Ms. Ali is lying, making up stories, etc., in Holland/Western Europe, she has every right to do so. If you are offended by it, change the channel. If you think this is the first time a piece of film misrepresented a people... go watch a Country Western, observe the savage Indians hopping around on horses, making bird calls. However, no one seems to raise their voice about how Native American culture is 'misrepresented' or try to stab John Wayne in broad daylight on a busy street.

A lot of muslims were offended by this movie. But it is not about the Islam in general. Van Gogh was not a Islam hater or a racist. Read his books. He was a provoker and he was an atheist with a sharp tongue and a advocate for freedom of speech but that was it. He was a clown but he sometimes overdid his act so a lot of people were offended. He did offend people, don't get me wrong. But I found a lot of his pieces amusing and I think he wanted people to see the relativity in things.

In this movie is not show how bad the Islam is, but how men can use the Islam as an excuse for their deeds. That is what Ali en Van Gogh were fighting for and don't give me that crap about the somalic background of Ali. It still surprises me how many people just don't see this and still think they wanted to offend a complete religion. It is just like how Ali said herself. She said something like that no matter how you formulate, when it comes to Islam (or any religion) they will always find it offensive.

While this movie might not be the best movie ever produced about Islam, it is absolutely amazing to find so many "tolerant and moderate" Muslim people so upset about it.

How many movies are there out there which show the negative side of Christianity? How many Nazis-Christians, pedophile-Christians and just-plain-evil-Christians movies are out there? How many movies are out there which show Jesus from a "blasphemous" perspective? We have seen Jesus as a homosexual, a sex fiend, a dope smoking hippie and many other potentially offensive angles. Yet, every time Christian extremists raise hell (ha ha) about it, most of us ask them kindly to chill out and to respect freedom of speech as well as artistic freedom.

How come we do not hold the Muslim community to the same standard? I don't understand why so many people find it OK for so called moderate Muslims to demand that movies like Submission be censored. We would not tolerate it if "moderate" Christians demanded the same about any of the flicks that might portray Christianity from a negative point of view.

If you know anything about Islam and Muslim women in general, if you have actually talked and met with Muslims who practice their faith, you will have to at least agree partially with what is shown in this short film.

Obviously, this doesn't mean that all Muslim men abuse their women or that all non-Muslim men are nice guys. As a matter of fact, I just watched a short documentary on women abuse in Spain, a traditionally Catholic country.