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AAI Urges Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona to reconsider screening inflammatory film “Fitna”

AAI
Posted on Wednesday February 25, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 25, 2009 – The Arab American Institute sent a letter earlier today to Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona asking him to reconsider sponsoring an event with Dutch MP Geert Wilders that includes a screening of a film that is considered highly inflammatory and Islamophobic. Mr. Wilders’ film, “Fitna”, juxtaposes verses from the Qu’ran with violent images.

Senator Kyl, the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, has extended the invitation to Mr. Wilder less than a month after the British Home Office refused entry to the Dutch MP on the grounds that he would threaten public security.

AAI urges the Senator to instead supplement the constructive efforts of the Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “Engaging with Muslim Communities Around the World,” and host a forum that fosters understanding and promotes genuine progress towards enhancing our nation’s security while ensuring the respect and freedom of all Americans.

The text of the letter follows:
February 25, 2009

The Honorable Jon Kyl
United States Senate
730 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Senator Kyl,

I am writing on behalf of the national membership of the Arab American Institute (AAI) to express our concern with your decision to host Dutch MP Geert Wilders on Capitol Hill on Thursday, February 26 and to strongly urge you to cancel the private screening of his short film ‘Fitna.’

Although the timing of this event seems to purposefully coincide with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on “Engaging with Muslim Communities Around the World,” also scheduled for this Thursday, the decision to show this film with Mr. Wilders as your invited guest raises substantive concerns beyond the optics of partisanship or political show.

As the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, we would trust that you considered that in the days before the release of this video in the Netherlands in March 2008, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties convened a call to test the Incident Community Coordination Team (ICCT), the communication system devised to connect DHS with a national network of Arab American and Muslim organizations under exceptional circumstances. (It should be noted that the only other time that network has been activated through DHS was after the December 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.) Your decision to screen this film, therefore, runs contrary to the judgment made by DHS under the previous Administration in March 2008 about the content, validity and appropriateness of this film.

Beyond that discrepancy and given your authority on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, hosting a figure, especially on the sacred grounds of the United States Capitol, who is well known for holding Islamophobic and anti-Arab views; who has been barred from entering the United Kingdom and described by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband as someone guilty of “extreme anti-Muslim hate”; who has tried to ban the Qur’an in the Netherlands; and who has produced such an inaccurate and distasteful video, is not only unnecessarily provocative but offensive and egregiously irresponsible.

Given your stature as Senate Minority Whip, we would expect your leadership in promoting only the values of tolerance, diversity and pluralism so cherished in our country as universal, and certainly inclusive of the millions of Americans who practice Islam. We would hope that you recognize that for over a hundred years Americans of Arab heritage and American Muslims have and continue to make extraordinary contributions to our growth and development as a nation. And we would trust that you appreciate the value of engaging the American Muslim community as a constituency vital to preserving the freedom and safety of our country. The fact that the viewing of the video is closed to the public and the press suggests that you are uninterested in such engagement or dialogue.

As a community based group that works extensively with Arab Americans and American Muslims across the nation, the Arab American Institute respectfully requests that you reconsider hosting Mr. Wilder on Capitol Hill on Thursday, February 26. Instead, we urge you to supplement the constructive efforts of the Foreign Relations Committee and host a forum that fosters understanding and promotes genuine progress towards enhancing our nation’s security while ensuring the respect and freedom of all Americans.

Sincerely,

Dr. James Zogby
President
Arab American Institute

CC:

Senator Patrick Leahy
Chairman
Senate Judiciary Committee

Senator Arlen Specter,
Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee

Senator Benjamin Cardin
Chairman
Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security

Assistant Secretary James Howe
Department of Homeland Security
Office of Legislative Affairs