The ‘Innocence of Muslims’ trap

Sahar Moussa

He is only known as Sam Bacile. He might be Israeli, Jewish or Coptic Christian, nobody knows. American or Southern California or Egyptian, again, nobody knows. But what I know for sure is his deliberate attempt to shoot a video that intends to cause complete chaos and confusion in the Muslim community all across the world. The unnecessary video that ridicules Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) was uploaded on YouTube under the name ‘Innocence of Muslims’ in a direct insult, not only to Islam but to every religion that people believe in.

What annoyed me the most is people’s aggressive and violent reaction towards that ridiculous and unethical video which resulted in the death of Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador in Libya and three others who were killed on Wednesday. I do understand people’s anger and loyalty towards their religion but I really wish that people wouldn’t have been naive enough to get dragged in to what I call ‘the trap’. Sadly, the act of killing innocent people only went on to further stereotype the West’s image of Islam as a ‘violent religion’.

The timing was also unfortunate and looked like a bait as it coincided with the 9/11 anniversary. According to AP, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and Sam Bacile, the two guys who were responsible for producing and directing the movie mislead the actors and dubbed their voices. They used about 15 key players from the Middle East: Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, and a couple of Coptic Christians from Egypt. This only goes on to prove that the whole movie was perfectly planned against Islam and the people behind it knew exactly what they were doing.

The Christians around the world have condemned the movie and expressed their disapproval against it. This mindless movie did have one positive outcome though: It shed light on the growing understanding and deepening ties between Christians and Muslims. I wish Muslims all over the world will not fall into such a treacherously well-woven trap again, and act as our religion has taught us to act. Islam teaches us to love, respect and help each other in the time of crises. It teaches us not to kill innocent people and stand by each other when the whole world is against us. Peaceful protests are okay to send the right message across but Islam doesn’t support this kind of a barbaric act.

It would have also made more sense if someone had shot an artistic video on Islam and posted it on YouTube instead of this; at least it would have won this media war. We could have made a video that showed what Islam is truly about in an artistic and objective way and posted it on YouTube and won this uncalled for war. And at the end of the day, innocence of Muslims is something that cannot be definitely defined by anyone.

By Sahar Moussa
sahar@kuwaittimes.net

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