A Saudi man has created a riposte to films criticising Islam in a video which portrays Christianity as a religion of violence. The film, entitled Schism, was made by Raed al-Saeed. It splices together Bible verses and Iraq war images – including British soldiers beating civilians. Other images show Christian extremists in America apparently encouraging children to fight a “war” for Jesus.

The film, which was posted on the internet last month, was initially removed by YouTube, the video sharing site. Mr Saeed complained to the site and it has been restored.

Mr Saeed said his film was not intended to outrage or provoke, but rather to illustrate how all religions could be depicted as preaching violence. “It is easy to take parts of any holy book and make it sound like the most inhuman book ever written,” reads the closing image in the six-minute film. Schism is a response to the recently released film Fitna by Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician, in which acts of violence by Islamic extremists are inter-cut with Koran verses.

It had been feared that Fitna would prompt violent global outrage amongst Muslims. So far, however, reaction has been muted. Instead it has spawned a host of parodies as well as more serious responses such as Mr Saeed’s film. “In Schism I have used the same methodology that Wilders has used and that involves taking texts out of context,” he said.

Daily Telegraph, 12 April 2008

See also “Schism — Saudi blogger’s answer to Wilders film”, Arab News, 10 April 2008