Since obviously there are a million and a half videos, books, blog posts, journal articles, you name it, already out there that in one way or another are critical of the religion of Islam.
So we are left to wonder why exactly it should be this particular recent unwatchable ridiculous and dubbed-over trash clip, published in a preview 14 minute version on YT that is now leading to violence, murder and unrest in Islamic countries.
Why not the gazillion other clips out there on the internet critisizing, mocking or ridiculing Islam and its prophet? Why not the bazillion books and newspaper articles freely available through any leisurely Google search?
Well, of course because like the Mohammed cartoon protests, these are orchestrated attempts from a few clerics and organisations, drawing on the not so insignificant numbers of gullible and violence-ready Muslims to capitalize on this dumb propaganda piece.
Islam may be just another man-made pile of sky pixie mythology. But Islam is not like Christianity. It takes effort to be a Muslim. From genuflecting five times a day in the vague direction of a meteorite in Arabia, to unphysiologically starving oneself for a month until sunset, to reciting verses that have to be translated and commented for you because to read them in the original would require knowledge of one narrow regional version of medieval Arabic, Islam isn’t easy, and nothing but total submission will do. Talk about brainwashing.
So those one billion odd humans who identify as Muslim today, they mean it. Or, if they are female or homosexual or atheists, they are trapped in it.
And exactly because the protests we are seeing now are orchestrated and manifactured by only a few interested parties, and because I believe that most Muslims have the ability to see this trash movie as what it is, a cynical attempt to incite the exact riots that are happening now, I think we should not fall into the trap and condemn Muslims in general over this.
But that’s just the thing with freedom of speech, it sometimes means freedom of speech that you don’t approve of, or that you find offending. Movies like “Innocence of Muslims” must be possible in a free society. The same goes for cartoons of religious prophets. Screaming “I’m offended” can not ever lead to the restriction of freedom of speech. Because when it does, freedom of speech is effectively dead.
Mohammed’s wife was the one who made the money in that relationship, before her husband, the future prophet, sat in that cave one balmy afternoon during Ramadan and met the Archangel Gabriel, a shall we say rather well known figure from earlier holy texts. A bit like Spock appearing in “Next Generation”. It is ever so slightly ironic that Mohammed’s wife in 610, a succcessful merchant, was the one making the money, when we reflect on the role of women in many Islamic societies today, 1500 years later. But wait, is that blasphemy already? Or do I have to draw a cartoon for that?
