On Insulting Muslims

[Solomon2]

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012
On Insulting Muslims

This morning, in response to the news that people were killed because someone somewhere made a movie that supposedly insults our Prophet (PBUH), I wrote the following tweet:

I think we need more, not less cartoons and videos that “insult” Muslims. We need once and for all to be desensitized & grow thick skins​

As you might have imagined, I got a few, ehm, colorful responses, many of which by otherwise reasonable people who seemed to have missed the point of the tweet. Considering that this is a sensitive topic, I think the idea deserves a little bit of elaboration.

First, I want to make it clear that I don’t approve of the movie which, judging from the parts I saw online, appears to be tasteless and crass drivel. But the point is not whether the movie is good or bad, tasteless or poignant. The question we all need to ask ourselves as Muslims is: Do people who make movies/cartoons/art that “insult” Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) deserve to die?

To me, the answer to that question is an absolute, unqualified “No”. There are two reasons why every Muslim on this planet should share this opinion. One is based on principles and the other is pragmatic.

The principled position is clear: Nobody deserves to die because of something they said. And certainly nobody deserves to die because of something someone else said. It is true that freedom of speech can be abused, but killing people for their opinion (or silently approving of other people killing them) is not the mark of Islam, a religion which many of its adherents believe was built on persuasion, not subjugation.

The pragmatic reason is that your response is doing more harm to your religion than the “insult” itself. I would never have watched that movie If the angry mobs in Egypt and Libya didn’t kill people because of it. By being angry and killing people you are unwittingly exposing much more people to the object of your wrath.

Imagine you’re driving down the road, and some idiot on the street calls your mother a “*****”. There are two things you can do: You can ignore him and his insult will be lost in the urban noise and concrete jungle. Or, you can park your car, make a scene and kill the guy. This way you guarantee that you’ll be featured in the newspaper the day after, with a couple of reporters investigating whether or not your mom was really a *****, and a columnist swearing that she actually is.

Was the man a jerk for calling your mother a *****? Of course! But it should be obvious to everyone what the right reaction to his insult is.

Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been writing about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005. Subscribe to my feed to stay updated with the latest posts.

Solomon2 note: Click on the article link to view the comments thread.

 

[xyxmt]

you just ignore a few of these type of incidents and after that no one will make it, those unknown movie makers, mediocre writer and journalists have found a way to get popular. so in my opinion what he is saying has some weight in it, with the kind of reaction this movie and those cartoon got previously is encouraging them to make more of it not less.

 

[Arabian Legend]

laughing at you to be honest. The US attacks Muslim countries to eliminate radicalism and extremism according to them but on the other hand we see radicals and extremists coming from your side not only this time but also from the past, starting drawing pictures, pissing over dead bodies, burning Quran, drones attack on civilians wether in Iraq, afghanistan, pakistan, yemen ending by making anti-Islam film. what kind of reaction you wanna get out of it. barking all the time about humans' rights, tolerance.. etc when the reality on the ground is saying the opposite.

 

[Developereo]

I agree that the Muslim reaction to "insults" is the wrong approach. We need to learn from our Jewish brothers: when you hold 'em by the balls, they won't even think of insulting you in public, regardless of what they may say in private.

Sacha Baron Cohen can be blatantly racist about various ethnicities, but God help anyone who does the reverse. Jewish authors and comedians routinely trash Christianity and Islam, but the reverse would never be tolerated. Danish authorities blabber on about freedom of speech, but when Arabs insult Jews, these very same authorities charge them with inciting racial hatred.

Some, it seems, are more equal than others.

 

[blain2]

Yet the point is correct that Muslims need to be able to handle these insults at the intellectual level because despite the anger, the ones paying for the instigation are mostly innocents or locals (property damaged, daily wages affected etc. of locals due to demonstrations that become violent burning, destroying facilities over anger in reaction to actions of some in a distant land) and the reality is that one cannot control what another says.

 

[gubbi]

Sacha Baron Cohen can be blatantly racist about various ethnicities, but God help anyone who does the reverse. Jewish authors and comedians routinely trash Christianity and Islam, but the reverse would never be tolerated. Danish authorities blabber on about freedom of speech, but when Arabs insult Jews, these very same authorities charge them with inciting racial hatred.

Apparently you havent seen Borat where Sasha's character celebrates the fictional "Running of the Jew" festival! Its hilarious! He is the first one to make a mockery of the Jewish people. So do many other prominent and ordinary Jews.

I have said this before and will say this again. A society or people which has matured over the ages WILL and do make fun of themselves - so that their mistakes can be looked at with humor and criticism and improved upon. Self-deprecating humor is the hallmark of maturity, not to mention taking into stride humorous barbs and criticisms.

 

[gambit]

Apparently you havent seen Borat where Sasha's character celebrates the fictional "Running of the Jew" festival! Its hilarious! He is the first one to make a mockery of the Jewish people. So do many other prominent and ordinary Jews.

I have said this before and will say this again. A society or people which has matured over the ages WILL and do make fun of themselves - so that their mistakes can be looked at with humor and criticism and improved upon. Self-deprecating humor is the hallmark of maturity, not to mention taking into stride humorous barbs and criticisms.

He simply does not know that in the US, the KKK routinely does far worse than making fun of the Jews.

 

[Safriz]

Yet the point is correct that Muslims need to be able to handle these insults at the intellectual level because despite the anger, the ones paying for the instigation are mostly innocents or locals (property damaged, daily wages affected etc. of locals due to demonstrations that become violent burning, destroying facilities over anger in reaction to actions of some in a distant land) and the reality is that one cannot control what another says.

The only problem is that there is no intellect involved in Making a cartoon,or making a movie with baseless false allegations...
These things frustrate Muslims specially when coming from people who don't believe in Islam and should have nothing to do with our religious icons..
We have had this debate Multiple times on This forum,on Facebook and on many other platforms...
There was no reason for Muslims to go protesting if they hadn't made the movie..
Surely a movie making fun of 9/11 victims...Making Mockery of the guy who jumped from Tower window....or Making a cartoon of him will infuriate Americans and there will be a rise in Racist attacks in USA..
similar is the situation of Muslims.
The day the non-Muslims specially Americans start understanding this,these problems will stop happening..

 

[Mahmoud_EGY]

this must be clear what happened was not because of a movie the US is a threat to any muslim country lets take a look at their work
1 occupation of iraq more than 2 millions iraqi dead and in the end they say it was a mistake
2 afganstan 3 drone strikes in yemen and pakistan 4 treating any muslim as a terrorist 5 threats to iran 6 racism and violence towards any muslim in us and europe i remember 2 years ago when egyptian women killed in germany because she wore a hijab by extremest 7 supporting isreal with weapons that kill arab women and children .. and all of this happens in muslim countries only
if all this happened to any religion they would be even more aggressive

 

[Developereo]

Apparently you havent seen Borat where Sasha's character celebrates the fictional "Running of the Jew" festival! Its hilarious! He is the first one to make a mockery of the Jewish people. So do many other prominent and ordinary Jews.

I have said this before and will say this again. A society or people which has matured over the ages WILL and do make fun of themselves - so that their mistakes can be looked at with humor and criticism and improved upon. Self-deprecating humor is the hallmark of maturity, not to mention taking into stride humorous barbs and criticisms.

You miss the point entirely. All societies make fun of themselves, including Muslims. Such criticism always respects red lines within the community.

The whole discussion here is about insulting others.

He simply does not know that in the US, the KKK routinely does far worse than making fun of the Jews.

Is the KKK literature promoted in mainstream media? Do youtube and facebook carry their extremist propaganda? Do politicians defend them as champions of free speech? Do KKK grand dragons get knighted by the Queen of England, and get paraded around respectable institutions as celebrities?

 

[Arabian Legend]

He simply does not know that in the US, the KKK routinely does far worse than making fun of the Jews.

there is big different b/t insulting and mimicking

 

[Safriz]

The only way to avoid future troubles is to create watchdogs for western media and all western media content coming into Muslim countries to be strictly verified and Blocked if found inflammatory.
That way they can make as many cartoons and insulting movies as they want,we simply wont know...
Pakistan did the right thing by Blocking the movie straightaway and there wont be any Violent protests in Pakistan as a result.

 

[KS]

^^ That begs the question - what about Muslims living in non-Muslim countries ?

 

[Safriz]

We listen to them too much,and once we stop listening to their media..They wont be able to provoke us anyway

 

[KS]

We listen to them too much,and once we stop listening to their media..They wont be able to provoke us anyway

Do you think every Muslim who protested was a subscriber to the Jyllends Posten ?

Unless there is a change in the mentality, nothing will improve. The more you people violently react, the more people will make fun of you. The less you take things in your stride, the less the provocations would be.