From viral video to violent protest

The recent trailer of The Innocence of Muslims on YouTube has sparked violent uprisings throughout the Middle East and Asia, resulting in numerous casualties including the death of Libyan ambassador to the US, Christopher Stephens on September 11th. For many, this violent response to a low budget movie seems a bit over the top, with President Obama stating that “there is no justification for this type of senseless violence”.

To a certain degree this point of view is valid. Thousands have attacked embassies throughout the Middle East, tear gas was deployed on rioters in Tripoli, and 86 arrests were made in India after attacks on the US consulate in Chennai, all in response to a 14 minute YouTube trailer.

Although preliminary evaluation of the events suggests an overreaction by the demonstrators, upon viewing the trailer it is obvious to see where a degree of the anger has stemmed from.

The film (previously entitled Desert Warrior) was originally about life in Egypt 2000 years ago, and was edited and dubbed into one about the life of the Prophet Muhammad; depicting him as a womanizer, murderer and advocator of child slavery in graphic and degrading footage.

Yet it is not only the topic of the film which is the problem. Those involved in the final stages of creating The Innocence of Muslims are all Egyptian-Coptic Christians known for inciting hatred against Islam, such as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the film’s producer who has previously described Islam as a ‘cancer’. Also, it would appear that the trailer was deliberately released to cause difficulties on the anniversary of 9/11.

Although trailers were on YouTube from July this year, it was not until early September that Nakoula, under the pseudonym of Sam Bacile, re-released the trailer with Arabic dubbing. Egypt has issued warrants for seven of the Egyptian-Coptic Christians involved, including Terry Jones, who gained notoriety after publically declaring his plans to burn the Quran on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

There are difficulties on both sides: to limit freedom of speech violates the democratic freedom which the West stands for, yet if we do not place internationally agreed limitations on what can be published or broadcast then this dispute will continue to occur.

Many Muslims see the depiction of Muhammad as a direct insult to their religion and thus believe that this should be respected. While the Quran does not actually forbid depictions of Muhammad at any point, some hadiths (supplementary teachings) have created this creed and it has consequently become an essential element for many Muslims.

It can be argued that the West should introduce some global ground rules for the publication of material which displays religious figures, especially if it is highly critical and incites hatred. Of course there would be tremendous difficulty in introducing legislation which would limit our freedoms, and this could arguably only worsen the situation and provoke further reaction. The heated responses to The Innocence of Muslims have already inspired Charlie Hebdo to create insulting caricatures of Muhammad which question the necessity of such an extreme reaction against what he believes to be so trivial. We can only imagine the hate filled response which will undoubtedly follow.

Although many in the West see the actions against The Innocence of Muslims as extreme and unjustifiable, I argue that if a film were made portraying Jesus Christ in the same derogatory terms that Muhammad has been portrayed, the reaction would certainly have been different – but the degree of anger and outrage would have been the same.

Where there were riots, there would have been protest from the Church, a highly respected position of authority throughout the West, and it is this respected authority which Islam lacks throughout the West. Our prejudices and fear of the extreme prevent legitimacy, consequently culminating in violent reactions.

While not excusing the actions of the rioters, nor the murders which have been committed, I do believe that we in the West have to be more understanding and respect Islam in the same way we respect other faiths like Christianity, and not see it as something to critique, mock, or judge in the degree that we do. In turn, there are areas of the Islamic community who must be prepared to become less hyper-sensitive about criticism.

It speaks volumes that the trailer behind the current violence has been on YouTube since July, and despite the chaos it has caused, was still on the site during publication of this paper. I am all for respecting freedom of speech, but things have to change. If not, we enter a society of rage and reaction.