It seems that the case is far from being closed

Apr 12, 2008 07:09 GMT  ·  By

The case that seems to be one of the most violent disputes ever created by a YouTube clip continues as a Saudi blogger posted a reply to Fitna, the anti-Islam clip that caused demonstrations and protests in several Islamic countries. Raed Al-Saeed, 33 year-old, has created a video response to the clip produced by the Dutch law maker Geert Wilders and uploaded it on the popular video sharing service YouTube. The 6-minute movie is based on Bible verses that encourage people to war and crime and even shows soldiers beating Iraqi people.

According to Spiegel Online, the clip entitled "Schism" was uploaded on March 1 but was removed by YouTube administrators soon after it was published. However, the uploader managed to convince the YouTube employees that removing his clip and keeping Fitna online is unfair, so the video came back online soon after its removal.

For those of you who missed the news, Geert Wilders, actually famous for his anti-Islam beliefs, created a 15-minute clip and uploaded it on YouTube. Due to the popularity of the video, Indonesians and other Islam countries set up demonstrations and protests in front of the Dutch embassies around the world. Because the clip was considered as offensive to the country, the Indonesian authorities urged YouTube to remove the clip otherwise the local ISPs will ban the entire website in the whole region. Since Google's video sharing service didn't block the video, Indonesia banned YouTube for a few days but then unbanned it, due to the complaints issued by the residents of the country.

Lots of people accused Indonesia of censorship while small-businesses complained that banning YouTube affects their evolution on the market, so the government adopted what was a smarter decision than banning YouTube: restricting the access to the Fitna clip published on YouTube.

Check out these links to read the full evolution of the case:

■ YouTube Unbanned in Indonesia ■ YouTube Banned in Indonesia ■ YouTube Causes Protests Due to Offensive Video, Full Ban Imminent

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Screenshot from Schism
Screenshot from Schism
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