First let us acknowledge that every religion or civilization on this planet deserves respect, understanding and tolerance. It is necessary to respect them all, Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, for the sake of human coexistence. It is also necessary for other religions and civilizations to respect us, and the different Muslim communities and sects, far from extremism, terrorism and counter terrorism…
It was not surprising to see Iran dismissing a prominent official in its media apparatus because he had broadcasted a part of Egyptian President Mursi’s speech in which he praises the Caliphs. Thus, we were not surprised that the broadcast of the Muslim prayer in a Shiite version on a Sunni television channel would go without a similar or more severe punishment!
Religious tension is a reality; holly wars waged in the name of religions and in the name of God will mark our history forever despite their different types and tools. Religions will always compete over power and influence in a bid to prove that each one of them is the best choice for humanity.
We should also admit that there is a global crisis at the level of the dialogue or understanding among civilizations and religions aiming at consecrating a true mutual respect. Thus, International Organizations have been pushed to interfere to draft laws against the public dishonor of religions and sects and to draw the line between insult, critique and examination.
The title of this piece “The Islamic Way of Anger” is not necessarily a right-or- wrong judgment. It rather relates a recurrent phenomenon that replicates the incidents triggered by the caricature of the Prophet and what is currently happening due to the anti-prophet movie.
I am quite confident that 99.99% of those demonstrating in the streets, responsible for the crisis in the real and virtual cyber worlds did not have a look at the movie, which is naturally expected.
Personally, I have watched the movie, or at least the only segment available of the movie. It is technically and artistically a trivial, despicable and scurvy movie that does not deserve to be called a movie. It is an open clowning aimed at fueling tensions, which it succeeded to do. There is even some information confirming that the integral version of the movie may not exist in the first place!
What we watched was a 13 minutes segment, the trailer shared by websites that showed really bad acting and primitive graphic tricks. Only the trailer of the anti-prophet movie was showcased and it did not gain its current fame except after the eruption of demonstrations against the movie and its unknown producers.
However it is deemed worthy to examine the severe anger in guiding masses against a trivial and petty movie both in form and content! Are the Islamic biography and history that vulnerable?
But most importantly, is this type of violence and protest in favor of Islam and Muslims? Or does it show that a ball of anger can be violently mobilized against any trivial and disgusting cartoon?
The writer is head of media at Al Arabiya
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