Callum Brown

“Mehdi Hasan Confronts Uwe Over His Controversial Islamophobic Movie - Then Elon Musk Gets Dragged Into It” Mehdi Hasan: Germany's free speech record is pretty bad on Palestine. But you said your film isn't about Islam. So why does the father of the rapist justify it by citing the Quran? Why does the protagonist talk about Islamists taking over Europe? And I agree that movies shouldn't be blamed for violence. What I would blame, though, is the way your film is being used by the political right in the US. When Elon Musk retweets someone saying, "This is the moderate response," do you believe it's a moderate response to murder a family? Uwe Boll: Of course not. But I made a movie. If the movie gets hated or loved, that's not under my control. I make movies to find an audience. In this case, the more conservative, Republican audience responds to the movie. But I think they're also normal people. They feel left alone by politics in Europe. Piers Morgan: It is indisputable that many people around Europe do feel that way. You may disagree, but a lot of people are genuinely concerned about the influx of migrants into the UK, legal and illegal. The question is whether this kind of movie can inflame tensions and encourage violence. Mehdi Hasan: I don't accept that Uwe or this movie is speaking for the people of Europe. He said something very revealing: he has to go where the audiences are. I think that's what he's done with this film. He's found Elon Musk and he's found this MAGA crowd that love this stuff. That's a cynical attempt to get a right-wing audience for your film.