Xenophobes Applaud Airing Van Gogh's Submission

The short movie Submission of Dutch writer and filmmaker Theo van Gogh, murdered last November by a radical Muslim, will be aired on national Italian television next Thursday. Past plans to broadcast the movie were not realized out of security concerns. The populist Italian anti-immigrant political party Northern League tried to show the movie on its own network, but was stopped by its producer.

Now the party hails the airing of Submission as "a victory for freedom of expression". That may be, but it is sad to see how a movie that aimed to open up the debate on domestic abuse of Islamic women, even if it was provocative and crude to many, is being hijacked as a propaganda vehicle for a xenophobic political agenda.

- - -

Link to Submission [Quicktime movie]
Related The Great Insulter