My thoughts on the chaos surrounding “Innocence of Muslims”
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt heard or seen the violence that has erupted in the Middle East over the video entitled “The Innocence of Muslims”. The video has been branded by some as inflammatory, while others have justified its existence using the tried and true ‘freedom of expression’ argument. Before I could weigh in, I decided to watch the controversial film. It was a daunting task, to say the least.
The video is of extremely poor production quality. It’s crudely dubbed (and then overdubbed). Ultimately, it’s an absurd piece of film that I have no idea why anyone would waste their time watching. In fact, but for the violence that has ensued, I’m skeptical that the video would have made even the tiniest blip on Internet.
Now, having said that, I can appreciate how some Muslims would find it offensive. At the same time, I could also see how this could easily be overdubbed (again) to offend Christians. If one were to mute the video, the prophet depicted could easily be mistaken for Jesus. Perhaps then, the original intention of the film was not what it ultimately became. It’s clear that the video was re-imagined to include opinions better left unsaid.
Ultimately, I believe the film is inflammatory – but it’s important to bear in mind that this is a piece of absurd fiction that is seemingly the ignorant opinion of a small group of people. Unfortunately, freedom of expression is a valid argument here. Those of us who think that this expression just plain sucks have the right to counter-expression. Our opposition to this kind of garbage should never, however, include violence. Certainly, the producers of this film should be ashamed, but those who have responded with violence should be more ashamed. One of the points expressed in the film is the misguided notion of the violence inherent in Islam, and as far as I can tell those who have responded with such violence are only giving relevancy to the film and doing a huge disservice to their faith. Had there not been such violence, this film would have slipped into obscurity and the fires of bigotry directed toward Muslims and the West would not have been inflamed further.
IMO, violence is never an appropriate solution when responding to bigotry and ignorance.
Peace.
M.xo