“Innocence of Muslims,” the low-budget, anti-Islamic film has ignited the Muslim world into a raging firestorm of violence. Within the first week of the online release, violence claimed dozens of lives, including that of a U.S. ambassador. This reaction is typical, one would assume, of the Islamic world; the very same population responsible for the fatwa placed on novelist Salman Rushdie for the “The Satanic Verses,” Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard for his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, tomboys, female political figures and even Mickey Mouse.
This is a demographic in the world that is responsible for the burning of the Library of Alexandria, the Iran Hostage Situation and the political paranoia of a nuclear Iran. It appears whenever someone says the slightest jab at Islam, something goes aflame, making it out to be one of the most sensitive religions around. That is, if you’re looking at the smallest portion of the Islamic world.
Let us make some clarifications, so as not to fumble around in the dark trigger-happy and shouting at unseen enemies. A fatwa is not a death sentence or a bounty, as if this was the Middle Ages and lawlessness suddenly seemed to be common. A fatwa is a juristic ruling issued by an Islamic scholar concerning Islamic law that affects things from daily life to jihad. It is actually weaker than its common law counterpart because it isn’t universally binding. Bounties issued under fatwa are incredibly rare.
The reaction to the video, or any blatantly offensive transgression of the Islamic faith, represented a centralized reaction to a widespread religion. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, as of 2009, the North African and Middle Eastern population of Muslims numbers around 300 million. In the Asia-Pacific region, including Indonesia and Bangladesh, that population is nearly one billion.
And what about those Muslims’ reactions? In accordance with the Indonesian Habib — someone who claims to be a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad — Munzir al Musawa’s, the nation’s enormous population of moderate Muslims simply ignored it.
They didn’t take to firebombing the U.S. embassy and hanging their opponents in a flashy display of Western intolerance. Indonesia is an emerging economy, and they enjoy trade relations with the West, which is why the few extremist organizations within the country are actively being quelled by the government. Only 15 percent of the population claims they were willing to vote for religious political parties. This is a nation that seeks to promote the peaceful nature of Islam; it is appalling to them that the United States possesses distrust for Muslims based on a small percentage of their ranks who hold enough anti-Western sentiment to tarnish the reputation of Muslims all around the world.
Radicals in any group can do the same. It is too easy to forget about Christian terrorist organizations when the news is constantly trying to affix our minds to a war with the Islamic world. Think about the Lord’s Resistance Army in Africa, the Irish Radical Army or even the destruction of abortion clinics in the U.S. Terrorism isn’t a strictly Muslim activity, nor a religious issue, but rather a vehicle used to justify the actions of a microcosm of people that seek to represent the whole.
How would an American like it if we held all people from the Christian South to the standards of the Oklahoma City bombers or the concerned Christians who were apprehended before attacking holy sites in Jerusalem? You would say that does not represent Christ’s teachings, just like Mr. al Musawa would say the same for Muhammad.
Nikolas Reda-Castelao is a contributing columnist. Email him at [email protected].
