By Maryam Ismail
Sadly, Chris Stevens, the US ambassador lost his life along with three of his colleagues in Libya. However, so, far, it’s not really clear why they were killed and who did it. The Libyan government is blaming Muammer Ghaddafi supporters. Then some are pointing towards and anti-Islam film, “Innocence of Muslims” whose trailer is available on YouTube.
With the way the protests were presented by some media outlets, he seemed to have all the backup he needs. On the US television channel ABC, there was a picture of the Egyptian rampage on the US embassy, under it, the caption read “September 11th anniversary, Egyptian protest at US Embassy,” next, on the Atlantic Monthly website, which features the trailer of the film and a link to a picture on twitter by Adam Taylor Awny. Awny, an Oxfam policy advisor, writes ‘demonstration with fireworks. Max Fisher of the Atlantic adds the word “celebratory” to make the copy more interesting: “Someone took a photo that appears to show some of the protesters, of which Reuters estimates there to be 2,000, setting off celebratory fireworks.” Just think of the scan-effect, protests in Egypt, death in Libya, and fireworks. And though the picture is not that clear, it still has the desired ‘real’ time effect. And what are the Egyptians are celebrating, the fall of the World Trade Center? Who knows.
As a Muslim, the first scenes of the Innocence of Muslim trailer turned my stomach; I turned it off without viewing the rest of it. Those who took it upon themselves to attack the embassy were wrong. However, it was easily just as wrong for the State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland to dismiss the film as a “home video”. There are lots of offensive home videos on YouTube and other video sharing websites, however, the problem with this one is that it looks more like a professional film, albeit a B–grade film.
Free speech, but to what end? Hasn’t anyone learned from the 2005 cartoon incident, or last years, Tea Party crosshairs which all but sanctioned the shooting of US senator Gabrielle Giffords and murder of several others? I had hope when US Joint Chief of staff, General, Martin Dempsey, of the US military’s called Terry Jones and asked him to tone down his support for the film that has incited protest. Next, there was the investigation by the Secret Service of a tweet, “Someone needs to assassinate Obama ASAP,’ sent by a sixteen year old Alyssa Douglas from the Clinton-Massie school district in Ohio. Whither free speech?
For those who are tired of Islamophobic stunts such as this silly film, my advice is to keep it cool. Like the real Prophet Mohammed, do what he would have done. He would have just walked away from such nonsense. Don’t give those who want to waste their time, money, and energy trying to denigrate our Prophet the time of day. And one day, inshaAllah, these useless troublemakers will go away.
—
Maryam Ismail is a freelancing American journalist based in UAE.