The Nonsense of Muslims

I'm sure everyone is up to date on the recent terror in Libya and other Middle Eastern nations because of the outrage over the anti-Islam film The Innocence of Muslims. It's a tragedy that people have been killed over this film, but to me these actions are a reminder to back in 2005 when the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy erupted.

Unfortunately to link these two events is an insult to the writers of the Danish cartoons. Those were actually a clever attempt at satire (I particularly enjoyed the picture of the cartoonist nervously drawing Muhammad while looking over his shoulder), and fully within what we in the "western world" cherish as free speech. The mocking of religion is something many people defended, rightfully so, as a necessary part of living in our modern society. The Jyllands-Posten newspaper which printed the cartoons also offered a commentary on why they printed them which included:

The modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own religious feelings. It is incompatible with contemporary democracy and freedom of speech, where one must be ready to put up with insults, mockery and ridicule.

The infamous cartoons, if you care to see them. A little small, I know. 

A well-thought response from a community only a year removed from the murder of Theo van Gogh.

On the other hand we have this abortion of cinema known as The Innocence of Muslims. I watched it, and it is so bad, I thought part way through that this must be some sort of satire of propaganda films, or just taking a jab at amateur filmmaking in general. It is so bad, I felt like it there must be some Poe's Law-type parody going on, and I was just moments away from the subtle wink, or the punchline, or something to let me know that this wasn't actually a serious effort.

But apparently it is.

You can view the film yourself, but it's pretty painful. The filmmaker clearly had the actors reading some other script, and then inserted his own words into their mouths in post-production. One laughably crude example has two characters discussing what name they should call someone else, and as one of the characters answers a disembodied voice says "His name his Muhammad." which doesn't match up at all with the his lips. It's pathetically juvenile. Which leads to the obvious question:

How can anybody possibly be insulted by this?

Now, despite what I tell women who I think might potentially sleep with me, I am not an expert on foreign policy. But it doesn't take a desperate college student to see that something else is clearly going on here. Something much bigger than this shit-stain of a film (which to call it that is an insult to films, and shit-stains, everywhere).

This is the kind of manufactured outrage that is designed by the people in power to keep the people out of power chaotic and angered. It keeps them pointing their fingers across the ocean, instead of back at their own leaders.

A film ten times more eloquent and a hundred times more critical of Islam should be able to be produced and not have any violence erupt from it. The same way we should be able to be critical of any idea or ideology that can be thought up; nothing is sacred. Unfortunately, we just don't live in that type of world right now.