Visualizing Uncertainty: Opposition to Islam in the Netherlands Through the Lens of Fitna: The Movie

Abstract

<p>This study explores the current socio-political context of the Netherlands through an analysis of <em>Fitna: The Movie</em> (2008), the online video produced by right-wing politician Geert Wilders. I frame the field of analysis as an affective economy of uncertainty in the country, manifesting in the increasing visibility of, for instance, anti-Islam sentiment, declarations of national identity crisis, and public figures claiming to speak on behalf of the “real” Dutch, in the public realm.</p> <p>With photographic footage of Muslims condoning and conducting violence displayed alongside Quranic verses, and a blatant appeal to viewers to “Stop Islamization. Defend our freedom”, Fitna is both product and visualization of the country’s affective economy. To the extent that the conventions and codes of its context shape <em>Fitna</em>’s form and content, the movie provides a visualization of uncertainty in the Netherlands.</p> <p><em>Fitna </em>constitutes both the target and the lens of this analysis. I refract a close attention to the movie’s montage editing, violated/violent images, and use of photographs through the concepts of fear, offense and truth(-telling), respectively. Taking the movie as lens, my analysis elaborates: the experiential dimension of uncertainty, as the disorientation of globalizing modernity; the key figures through which uncertainty circulates, including nation, religion, Islamization and depillarization; and the affect’s primary representational mode as truth telling performance.</p> <p>Rather than explaining (away) opposition to Islam in, or the affective economy of, the Netherlands, this seeks to explore and experiment. I explore the character and mechanics of an affective economy through an experimental methodology centered on a single visual object. Given these objectives, the study closes with reflections upon the potentials and pitfalls of an analysis of <em>Fitna: The Movie</em>, with particular respect to popular narratives recounting the movie’s alleged failure.</p>