Thousands of protesters. Riots all over the Middle East. The death of a U.S. ambassador.
The cause? A low-quality, amateurish YouTube video.
“The Innocence of Muslims” is a two part anti-Islam video directed by Egyptian native and California resident Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who went under the pseudonym “Sam Bacile.” Nakoula uploaded part one, “The Real Life of Muhammad” on July 1 and part two, “Muhammad Movie Trailer,” a day later.
Featuring badly dubbed video clips of inexperienced actors in modern-day Egypt, “The Real Life of Muhammad” mocks the Islamic prophet Muhammad, claiming him to be a fool and religious fake.
The videos slowly went viral, and on Sept. 9, a clip of the “The Real Life of Muhammad” was broadcast in Egypt. Two days later, areas in Egypt and Libya broke into protests, followed by other Arab nations and some western nations. On Sept. 11, Americans were shocked by the death of their ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, who died when militants broke into the embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
Since then, parts of the world have been in an uproar, wondering if America’s “freedom of speech” ideals give people too much leeway; some wonder how such a film—brimming with discrimination and bigotry—could possibly exist. How could the filmmaker criticize Islam?
Really?
These riots are borderline ridiculous, showing nothing more than the inability of religious fanatics to take any sort of criticism of their faith. Many even claim that this video infringes on another one of the American principles, freedom of religion; however, this is not the case. This video is in no way preventing Muslims from practicing their faith.
Besides, “The Innocence of Muslims” is not the first ever bold attack on religion—the press coverage, Nakoula’s eventual jail sentence and the violent protesting just make it seem like it is.
At some point or the other, every religion has received its own share of ridicule. Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” pointed out that the Monty Python movies have been mocking Christianity for ages without any large-scale riots, murders or embassy burnings.
Many people worldwide are simply jumping onto the bandwagon, forcing Google to block the video in the rioting countries and believing that Americans should not condone the expression of such bigoted views. What they fail to realize is that the actual protests in the Middle East are protests by a minority.
In fact, counter-protests took place soon after the original protests as Muslim leaders asked their people to ignore the provocative video. Yes, many Muslims were offended—who wouldn’t be?—but most firmly rebuked the violence that occurred.
These overreactions by extremists have reached a point to where Cindy Lee Garcia, an actress in the videos who claims she had no part in the offensive voiceovers, filed an unsuccessful lawsuit ordering YouTube to remove the video from the website. Not only do attempts at forced removal violate the ideal of free speech, but the lawsuit represents the irrationality of these extremists.
Sure, this video insulted a particular religion, but should anything that criticizes any religion be banned as well? Unlike many other places in the world that do not allow or fully understand free speech, our country guarantees it to us. Condemning “The Innocence of Muslims” undermines this privileged right.
