The brainchild of right-wing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, the anti-Islamic film, which was released Thursday on the Web failed to provoke the anticipated uproar among Muslim communities.

Although the film has certainly failed to impact mainstream society in the ways he had hoped, the shock tactics embraced by Wilders are aimed at creating a pervasive climate of suspicion and, more disconcertingly, fear among non-Muslims in the Netherlands and Europe at large.

The film, which runs just under 17 minutes, opens to the image of the notorious cartoon depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, drawn by Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and published by Danish newspapers amidst widespread condemnation in early 2006.

Wilders' brashness is highlighted by his failure to secure consent for such use. Westergaard also told Dutch television that he would have denied consent should Wilders have sought permission to feature the cartoon image and has announced that he plans to sue Wilders through the Danish association of journalists for plagiarism.

Film clips from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States and the Madrid bombings of 2004, as well as shots of the 7/7 bombings in London, are intermingled with translated Koranic recitations, ostensibly selected to shock the viewer. While the passages from the Koran have implications of universal violence and advocated bloodshed, these texts are taken out of context, with lines arbitrarily joined in an attempt to create a chilling effect.

While the current portrayal of the Muslim religion is, indeed, often colored by politicization and misinterpretation, it must be considered that passages advocating violence and intolerance are found within the texts of most organized religions.

Moreover, Wilders' haphazard construction of what he believes to be the foundation of Islamic religious ideology through such selective use of Koranic passages neglects the essentially peaceful nature of Islam, which shares the Arabic root of "salam," or peace.

The film at www.liveleak.com then continues with other disturbing and often times graphic images, including the footage immediately preceding a beheading (accompanied by sound when the picture becomes too graphic to show), children denouncing Jews as "apes and pigs," and women in burqas inexplicably carrying signs proclaiming "God Bless Hitler" and threatening a "Real Holocaust." Also featured are clips of outspoken Dutch politician Theo van Gogh who was murdered in 2004 by a radical Dutch Islamist.

The final segment of the short film continues to evoke the style of shock tactics by portraying a hypothetical Netherlands of the future, overtaken by radical Islam and wrought with interreligious violence. Long known for tolerance and multiculturalism, this apparently inflammatory clip is a tribute to Wilders' own (albeit skewed) take on Dutch society.

In a statement before the film's release, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende rejected Wilders' willingness to directly equate Islam with violence. He maintained that Wilders' personal opinion did not represent the sentiments of the broader Dutch population and stated that "the vast majority of Muslims reject extremism and violence."

Although banned in Pakistan and condemned throughout the Muslim world, the Muslim community in Europe has widely discounted the film as being based on unsubstantiated allegations.

No violent incidents were reported in Europe in conjunction with the film's release, an indication of the minimal degree of impact the film has had on the relation between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe.