Stone Abdullah
Blue & White Flash / Guest Writer
The recent anti-Islam video cryptically named “Innocence of Muslims” that has spread like the black plague over the Middle-East and other nations where Islam is the dominant way of life, has indeed invoked violence and hatred. It is as if somebody—or some collective group of individuals flipped the proverbial “switch” and watched the chaos unfold like clock-work.
Dozens have died with hundreds injured and no one is sure when peace will be restored. But who could be responsible for the construction of a film that blatantly accuses (without any evidence) a religions’ Prophet of being a child molester, womanizer and a fraud? The answer is far more sinister than popular news media would allow…and maybe that’s on purpose.
First, what do most Americans know about Muslims? Many Americans believe that Muslims are either “terrorists”, “islamists”, “radicalists”, “militants”, “Islamic-radicals”, “Islamic-militants” and the list goes on but never are they Muslims.
Many believe the 9/11 Commissions’ report on “Islamic-radicals” knocking down the Trade Centers when all of their passports were recovered and black boxes weren’t. That aside, the majority of Americans have little to no respect for Muslims, and those that do are marginalized or not publicized.
And it’s not just in America; remember in 2006 when a Dutch artist in Denmark produced a derogatory cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad? There was not much public outcry (aside from the Muslims), and it wasn’t treated as anti-semitic—even though Arabs and Hebrews are semitic. And let’s not be mistaken, Christians, Jews and Muslims get mocked alike. But, mock a Muslim, things are fine; mock a Jew, pay a fine.
Enter the anti-Islam video. According to thestar.com, a host of extreme individuals from Coptic and Evangelical Christians in America to so-called extremist Muslims in Egypt are to blame for the production and promotion of the video. Why? Political gain.
I am a Sunni Muslim, meaning the majority of the 1.5 billion on earth, and it saddens me to see other Muslims react violently, however, against those not responsible for this grave slander. Muslims should not consider a “take it lying down attitude” towards mockery of Islam, but neither should Muslims exceed the limits set by Islam.
For instance, the Shariah law in Islam for the penalty of slander is death to those who’ve done it—and this means proving their guilt, not by random choice. However, because Shariah law also tells us that we must obey the laws of the country we live in, common sense says we can’t exercise that penalty. Unfortunately, Islam is the most slandered on and berated religion on the planet; even so there is deep, emotional attachment with its believers. Regardless of such, our faith must take precedence over our emotions and I can only pray that it happens soon.
Secondly, if those who incite Muslims didn’t know how easily it was to incite them, they wouldn’t work so hard to do it. What they’ve perpetrated is evil and should be protested not only by Muslims, but any person of faith.
Third, Muslims should know better. This sort of orchestrated incitement has been done before and if the Muslims cannot recognize when they are being manipulated, the joke is solely on us. That being said, the Muslims who violently reacted are of poor, unemployed younger aged males who have nothing to lose for their country is already disenfranchised. In contrast the American Muslims, who aren’t spoken about, do not react violently but speak of their discontent about the video.
What does this mean? The framing of Muslims as nothing but uncivilized people must be perpetuated just to ensure that in America at least, little to no influence from them can exist. So far it has worked.
My final reaction to this abomination is that it does not hurt me, my brothers and sisters in Islam, nor does it affect Islam in any way—contrary to our intolerance of slander. Why? We believe that those who commit such atrocities shall eventually face the ultimate penalty…which if I may, helps me sleep.
The views expressed in the commentary are those of the writer(s) and in no way represent the views of The Blue & White Flash.
Last week, I was simply blown away by amount of idiotic content published in The Flash about the Innocence of Muslims film and subsequent violence in the Middle East. Between the front page article, the commentary, and the People Speak section, there were numerous statements that necessitate some form of reply or rebuttal.
To begin, twice was made the half-truth assertion that our president called for Google to remove the movie trailer from Youtube. The whole truth is that while his administration did ask Youtube to review the video, to see if it violated any of their terms of use, it did not simply ask that it be removed. Their reason for not asking that brings me to my second point.
Corinthian Sanders, as quoted, seemed to struggle with understanding why Youtube would not remove the video. This confusion conveys the absence of a fundamental understanding of our right to free speech- a right so important to our nation that it was granted during the very first Congress of the United States in the very first amendment to our constitution. The same freedom of speech that stopped our government from removing that video is the freedom of speech that ensures Muslims will be allowed to share their views in a predominantly Christian country without the fear of censorship.
Continuing, Mr. Sanders seemed to blame Google for the deaths that occurred in the Middle East. He said that, “[T]hose people didn’t have to get hurt or die. Google could have taken the video down,” as if leaving the video up absolves the murderers for what President Obama refers to as an “act of terrorism.”
The Commentary section was equally ludicrous. Guest writer Stone Abdullah implied that 9-11 was not committed by Islamic radicals, made patently false statements about publicity for Muslim-respecting Americans, made an arguably racist quip, and closed with the most morbid sentence I’ve ever read in The Flash.
To address his claim that “[T]he majority of Americans have little to no respect for Muslims, and those that do are marginalized or not publicized,” I simply wish to list numerous Muslims who have garnered plenty of respect and publicity from our culture. Examples being: Shaquille O’Neal, Muhammad Ali, Akon, Ice Cube, Lupe Fiasco, Congressman Andre Carson, and Malcom X, to name a few.
Finally, to the young men in the People Speak section who opined that the murder of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, among others, was “warranted”, simply because a video made in the US offended people; you sicken me. If everyone thought the way you do, then people all across America should be rioting and murdering because of shows like South Park and Family Guy, who routinely offend various classes of people.
Thankfully, there were people like Anas Alfarra and Rim Marghli, who voiced reasonable positions on the issue at hand. People like them give me hope that all is not lost in this country.