Are you like me disgusted by the violence in response to “Innocence of Muslims”?
Do you wonder why the USA is blamed by those violent idiots for the stupid and poorly produced (I resent the idea calling it a movie ) armature propaganda-flick although the director is an Egyptian Christian by the name Nakoula Basseley Nakoula!??
This might help!
concider:
The USA grants it’s citizens, by their constitution in the first amendment the freedom of speech.
Yet other countries have no freedom of speech, or a very different and restricted form of it.
These countries usually have even a whole apparatus devoted to restricting the freedom of speech, according either to political agendas, religious beliefs or on ethical grounds, and make the life of journalists, artists, politicians and movie makers miserable. This is called censorship and is one of the favorite disciplines of non democratic countries.
So we can assume that people in countries as described won’t necessarily get how this whole first amendment thing works! -going so far to say some wouldn’t even believe it.
Furthermore, in most of these countries producing a movie is a process mostly undertaken by state television, or at least with state authority approval, in agreement with censorship regulations.
So not understanding how freedom of speech in another country (lets say the USA) is granted and protected by the government, one may jump to conclusions...
Such as “The USA have made a movie to show how they hate Islam and the prophet...”
You might now think: “But if they get so angry, why don’t they take a minute to understand the concept of a democratic government, lets say by googling it and reading some articles of Voltaire and Russo, and maybe some Wiki on the issue of the founding fathers’ beliefs.”
Well, remember that thing with the dedication to censorship we just discussed? Turns out it also messes with the good old WWW and turns it into one big “NOT FOR YOU” if you live in one of those countries. -Not to mention that not every person in the world is literate, at least not all can read English even if they would have access to the information.
So, now lets take this potential point of view into consideration:
- You have no, or very limited access to independent information.
- You have no understanding of freedom of speech.
- In your world movies are always approved or even entirely financed and created by government appointed authorities.
- You hear that someone made a “Movie” about the most holy person to you and 1.6 Billion other Muslims, insulting and ridiculing the Prophet and portraying him as a violent murderer and pedophile.
- Then people come around and spread the idea that it is a USA “movie”
Having written all this, I believe that a few narcissistic extremists have waited for long and continue to lurk around to take advantage of other peoples emotions and beliefs. For them this is a feast. They abuse the understandable mortification of those hurt by the “anti-islam” flick. With the use of misinformation and propaganda they turn it into violent potential.
For example, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is not acting out of love for the Prophet Mohamed. They just try to use the public outrage to discredit western societies and the USA , merely to get the country back into their own hands again, clinging on to the drug trail.
I think at the end of the day it will be only a few who are outraged enough to become violent, but it will definitely hurt a lot more of those 1.6 billion human beings that consider them self Muslims.
With all that in mind let me ask you a question, which is important to me as a freedom of speech advocate and filmmaker:
How do we stop the hate from spreading, taking into account the different understanding of freedom of speech, while not compromising our own rights!?
Absolut amteur, shocking in its awfullniss. One has to believe no one who is outraged hase actualy seen this video and can still take it serious! It is grocely rediculas and an childish act.
