The reason I’m speaking about Muslims and “Muslims” (between quotation marks) is because the only thing Muslim about the latter (i.e. “Muslims”) is the religion they think they’re following but are really not. They are a disgrace.
An anti-Islam movie, The Innocence of Muslims, which has been available online for the past year recently started to make the rounds after being dubbed in Egyptian Arabic.
As a result, a wave of violence has spread across countries with substantial Muslim populations to protest the movie. The American embassy in Libya was stormed and the ambassador was killed. The embassy in Yemen has been stormed as well. And the violence doesn’t seem to let down.
The Egyptian “Muslims” are in an upheaval against the Copts, accusing them of staging the entire thing because the movie was promoted by a Copt expat. As a result, 9 Copt expats were barred from entry to their country. As if their struggles in Egypt were not enough (click here).
And in the midst of it all, as some “Muslims” sparked in outrage in typical “Ella Mohammad” chants and killed because of a silly movie, I couldn’t help but ask myself this simple question: Why can’t they take it?
Why is it that every single time some ignorant trouble-seeking person makes a movie, a cartoon or something even sillier, to demean their prophet, some “Muslims” have to go all out on anything that reminds them of Western civilization?
Hezbollah has issued a statement in which the entire thing is a US-zionist fabrication. But they can’t do anything because the Pope is visiting tomorrow and that wouldn’t look too good come elections next year.
The Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) have issued a statement where they believe “Muslims [have been] subjected to humiliation and abuse” because of the video and as such they don’t even condemn the barbaric acts taking place. It’s ironic how they have people in their own backyard that face such humiliation and abuse every single day: the Copts of Egypt, the Christians of Iraq and yet somehow fighting for them doesn’t feel meaningful. One can also argue that what’s happening to the Palestinians in their home is also an offense to the Prophet. But that’s besides the point.
I have watched the movie. I think it’s disgusting. I think it’s a disgrace. I, a non-Muslim, found it nauseating and so absurd that I wouldn’t want to waste another second of my life trying to watch any part of it again. I think it’s a movie that gets anyone with a brain angry – but not angry enough to go around terrorizing innocent people who have nothing to do with it.
What is the fault of an American if an American decided to do this movie? What is the fault of a Danish person that some Danish cartoon artist decided to draw a useless caricature of Mohammad? Unlike our countries over here, their states do not ban things just because they are offensive to a category of people. Just as many Muslims want those same people to stop putting them all in one bag whenever some terrorist religion-less islam-proclaiming group goes on a killing spree, they might as well extend this courtesy to others too.
This brings me to my next point. When some “Muslims” attack embassies in anger over their religion being offended, they are only getting more chaos-loving individuals to come up with more demeaning cartoons and movies of their religion. And the cycle repeats itself again. The moment these “Muslims” stop acting out their anger on the streets is the moment those who like to poke around stop loving doing what they’re doing and maybe even lessening it.
Besides, can’t those very angry “Muslims” stop for a moment and think that this is the exact reaction those who did that movie want of them to have? The movie is not an expression of freedom. It is an insult. The filmmaker knows that. And he has done it on purpose. And you have these people eating it up like candy. There’s no point in making the movie except to get some hot-blooded people on the streets and to cause mayhem. And it’s been a resounding success.
Do those “Muslims” supposedly defending their religion know how many people around the world are looking at them and thinking: what kind of religion is this? I have to ask: what’s worse: thinking that you’re defending your beliefs by making everyone mock them or truly defending your beliefs by being exemplary in showing them to everyone just as they truly are?
Do they think they’re restoring the pride of the Prophet with this? Would their Prophet be proud of what they’re doing? Or is he prouder of those who simply prayed on it and asked for forgiveness for those who did the movie? Do they think the image they’re portraying is one that befits the Muslims who know that such barbaric acts are unacceptable?
If those “Muslims” read the teachings of the Prophet they’d know how wrong their actions are. There’s a “Hadith” for the Prophet which says – and I paraphrase – “a strong person isn’t that who acts violently when he’s mad. It is the one who controls his anger and doesn’t act violently.”
The Prophet also said – and I loosely translate – “The Prophet honored those who get past blind wild anger and said “the toughest of you is that who holds himself when angry and the best of you is that who forgives when he can” and he said “who holds in his anger has his weakness covered” and he said “who holds in his anger has God rewarding his pain.”
كرم الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم اولئك الذين ينأون بأنفسهم عن الاستجابة للغضب الطائش الجامح، فقال (أشدكم من ملك نفسه عند الغضب وأحلمكم من عفا عند المقدرة وقال: من كف غضبه ستر الله عورته) وقال صلى الله عليه وسلم (من ملك غضبه وقاه الله عذابه)
Soon enough the people protesting will get over it and they will be preoccupied by the next religious toy for them to chew on. But the effect of this movie will be ever lasting. In an age where American policies have “theoretically” been geared towards helping these Arabs in their struggle for freedom, a pro-America feeling is far from being instilled in their minds. What will remain in people’s mind though is that there was a movie condemning the Prophet and it was American. On the other hand, the Americans will look at these “terrorists” and further deepen their false convictions about the entire region.
The only person smiling out of all of this is the filmmaker. He got what he wanted.
The age of Muslim cold-bloodedness needs to start now because there’s a lot more from where that movie came from.
“It is in times like these that I’m thankful I’m Christian.” I read this sentence many times recently and wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. Why? Because even though to many I’m a struggling minority who shouldn’t feel comfortable in this region, I knew deep down that there was a part of me – and I’m sort of ashamed to say this – that agreed with it. And I think feeling thankful that you were born into a religion only because of the actions of some individuals in another one isn’t acceptable. Not one bit.
But the thing about Christians of the Middle East is that they can take it, despite them being a minority and in spite of many finding them an irrelevant burden – the Copts of Egypt might even have to take in a few things now with some of them being involved in this. Middle Eastern Christians always take it and hope that one day things will change and there wouldn’t be things left for them to swallow.
But until that day comes…
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
Its not Hezbollah Cant , its Hizbollah Doesn’t want , you still Managed to put the name in the text though i can’t see a relation ,,,
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It’s very relevant. It’s a stance from what’s happening.
And no they can’t. Because if they did anything with the pope visiting, all hell will break loose and that is not a hell they would ever want to see.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this. The way the cycle has turned is crazy.
First of all, if the Copts weren’t being treated like crap in Egypt, odds are they would not have been driven to be part of this movie in the first place.
And the people who did the movie are so selfish (all insults to the Prophet aside) because they KNOW the kind of ignorance that is in that region, and they KNOW the persecution that the Copts have been facing, all they did now was give the ignorant “Muslims” more reason to persecute the poor Copts who are still living in Egypt and are probably as disgusted from the movie as the Muslims themselves.
كفار قريش كان يقولون قصائد تذم الرسول وصحابته الكرام ، ولم تصل لنا هذه القصائد لأن الرسول والمسلمين لم يتناقلوها ولم يعيروها أي اهتمام فأندثرت ، وعلينا أن نتعامل مع الفيلم المسئ بنفس الأسلوب ولا نعطيه اكبر من حجمه فينتشر اكثر.
رحم الله عمر بن الخطاب حين قال ” أميتوا الباطل بالسكوت عنه ”
Also, the “ella rasoul Allah” slogan that comes out in response to each time some silly cartoon is made. like really, i’d much rather read “ella ikhwaananaa” or something referring to all the killings going on in Syria, I think the Prophet would be much more concerned with that than with anything else.
and the whole thing coming out on 9/11
sickening, the whole thing is sickening.
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Interestingly enough, we agree!
The movie has been out for a year though based on what I read. It wasn’t until it got dubbed in Egyptian that it spurred this chaos.
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It was published on youtube on September 11
maba3ref. and it could have been dubbed this period of time.
the whole thing is fishy…
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Yeah not clicking on that piece of shit again. I’ll try to find the link I read which says it was released last year.
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http://gawker.com/5942748/it-makes-me-sick-actress-in-muhammed-movie-says-she-was-deceived-had-no-idea-it-was-about-islam
oh my god.
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And apparently one of the actors is involved in gay porn as well. Someone sent me this on Twitter: http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/09/gay-porn-actor-tim-dax-talks-to-us.html
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That “trailer” is really lame. I don’t doubt for a minute that this particular author was out to annoy and incite people. But I do miss one essential point in your post, the fact that being offensive is often a response to bigotry.
Muslims, like any other religious group, should not have the right not to be offended. Have you considered for a second such trailers might be a response to the daily crap people have to take from certain radical figures? You see, one could easily post 100 authentic videos of some radical cleric – not excluding state-sponsored ones or highly respected ones – say the most disgusting things about Jews, women, Christians and who knows what else they hate. The rage this movie caused reminds me of this cartoon of a Danish kid who draws Mohammed, then the Muslim gets offended while drawing a Nazi-like caricature of a Jew.
If bigots don’t want to be offended, don’t be a bigot. If moderates don’t want to be offended, deal with your local bigots and grow some skin. Perhaps if there weren’t so many extremists within one’s community, offensive films wouldn’t be there to begin with. When was the last time someone made a video ridiculing Norwegian culture and got threatened for it? Right, exactly.
Sad thing is we need self-censorship because we live in a world where people do not understand Westen state institutions, and we have to deal with them. I find it hard to choose: in a way I don’t like the idea of it if you know responses are going to be violent. But like I said as long as such responses exist there is a need to offend. If not we might as well erase freedom of speech from the constitution and replace it with “freedom from having your ideas offended”.
I can write this because I have the luxury to live in a society where ultra-conservative bigots and their enablers were offended and ridiculed enough to have no power over me.
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Ok I was pissed off last night. I would like to add some clarification. For moral reasons I do not believe it is right to ridicule any mainstream faith or single out Muslims. But that should never lead to any kind of legal censorship. Freedom of religion does not include the freedom to force ideas upon others. As long as ultra-conservatives exist we will need ridicule and parody because people who look down upon others (women, Jews, gays), should never be looked up to.
For practical reasons, I believe people should keep in mind our Western presence in countries where such ideas exist. Not only is – for instance – burning the Quran (or any book), quite retarded, it is also impractical considering we have troops in countries like Afghanistan: a place not quite known for centrism or moral relativism.
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I couldn’t agree more. I’m a Muslim, and I was outraged, not by the movie, but by the people who made such an obscure stupid film known to the whole world by their own hands. Otherwise this movie would have never been heard of. Yet, I have to make a cautionary statement here. I’m now alone in this feeling. And just because a couple of hundred make a stuoid move does not mean we need to use the tag “Muslim”. You should be aware of that issue, as the same thing goes with Christians too. You can’t just put everyone in the same pocket. That being said, I still think that those people have acted in a most stupid way. And by their behavior, they allowed everyone else to look at Muslims and mock them, and made this very naive movie a most popular item. They have just made the thing they were trying to stop.
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I said this once , and i will say it again . but this time i think no one can argue against me …
Its up to Muslims to change their image.
When they reluctantly , and some BIG groups don’t even condemn the acts then I would come to the conclusion that Islam is evil and that its not a religion of peace as some Minorities claim it is.
the movie is ridiculously stupid , its by far the most stupid movie I’ve ever seen … it didn’t cost any money to film, and its clearly made by Islam hating morons that are jewish and stupid at the same time .
AND ITS very funny that something so stupid can offend so many 😀
i’m actually happy to see those idiots make a fool out of them selves
It makes me euphoric to see them dig their own Grave when it comes to media.
they are idiots
http://williamsprojects.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/burning-mr-creosote/
anyway the movie is stupid , but the Muslims reacting to it are stupider
And Elie , habibi,… Islam will catch up to Christianity but even thou
“It is in times like these that I’m thankful I’m Christian.” There is NO time ever that any human alive can be thankful that he/she is christian , or any other religion LOL!
Now the Christian majority is docile and rawaa , but go some years back and you’ll see the true face of religion!!!!
Burning women , because they have black cats … really? the inquisition? the crusades? ma3lesh man don’t throw rocks when your house is made from paper thin glass
Christians … Jews … Muslims … they are all the same …
Later Christian…
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Excellent, the article reach its paroxysm with the Koranic quotes,
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