Muslim outrage and Uncle Tom’s Cabin
To this day, there are many debates about how and what started the most devastating war in the American history. The civil war started in 1861 and ended in 1865. It was a four-year war which ended 140 years ago, but the scars are still felt in many ways and still remembered. You can still see the confederate flag which is also called the Southern Cross in many southern states of America.
There were thousands of books written about the civil war, but the least known book is what is thought to be the book that started the war. The book is titled (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), written in 1852 by a lady named Harriet Beecher Stowe which was about African-American life under slavery. The book reached millions and was read in many places around the world. Historians say that President Abraham Lincoln said to the author of the book when he first met her after the war, you are the little lady who started the civil war. Abraham Lincoln was touched by the book.
Now, the question is, did the American Civil War start because of a book written in the 19th century? If the answer is yes, then what about the 21st century information age mass media? This is the age of the YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the Internet in general.
Few days ago, an absurd, bad taste and provoking short movie was released. It was an online movie and was very offensive to Muslims. It was about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The movie was in bad taste and it was very wrong to produce such a movie. After the release of this sick movie, there were instant outrages in many Muslim capitals. We saw riots in Egypt and Yemen. And in the Libyan city of Benghazi, there was an attack on the American Consulate. In the attack, four American diplomats were killed including the American Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
The irony of this is that it was the Americans who speeded up the fall of the former dictator of Libya (Muammar Qaddafi). And it was the American 21st century media technology which brought the rebels to become leaders of one of the oil rich countries. And the sad thing is that the Americans who got killed in Libya really loved Libya and the Libyan people. And they wanted to help Libya recover from its chaos.
The American ambassador was the biggest supporter for the Libyan uprising and rebels. And the Libyans know if it wasn’t for the American backing for NATO strikes, they would still be struggling to topple Qaddafi. The ambassador and his staff were the victims of irresponsible act of an ignorant producers and the act of irresponsible Libyan crowd. But, the bigger challenge for the ongoing protest is not in Libya. The challenges to the American administration are the riots in Egypt. A lot of analysts say the riots near the American Embassy in Cairo are not connected to the online movie. The riots are reflections of the ongoing Arab Spring. The same thing goes for Yemen.
So, the question now is, what did the producers of the movie accomplish? Until the time of writing the article, it caused the death of four innocent patriotic Americans in Libya and caused more unrest in other places in the Muslim world. And what is more, the producers are also endangering the lives of many Americans and NATO personal around the world. And what is worse is that they have divided the world again when the wounds of Sept. 11 terrorist attack were healing. Many people around the world from different faiths are trying to bring people together to pick what is common between them rather than spreading hate.
To this moment, no one really knows who is behind the movie or even if they expected this kind of reaction. Everyone including the US government is against producing such movies. This is why Muslims have to be cautious about their reaction. There are far better ways to show your objection about an online movie which is produced by unknown sources. Muslims have to adapt to the new era of the mass media and open skies. Nowadays, even a child can produce an online movie about anything. And if Muslims show an outrage when a media attack on Islam is committed, then the enemies of Islam will continue. A badly produced movie doesn’t tarnish the greatness of Islam. It is the actions of Muslims and how they behave is what would make others judge Islam and Muslims.
The action of the attackers in Libya and the Egyptian riots will make the online movie more popular and will make more people want to watch it, even if they are not interested in religious affairs. We have seen many Islamic media productions which were produced and funded by Muslims and they were offensive to some Muslim minorities. And the most recent one was in Ramadan when an episode titled (Omar) which talked about the life of the second Muslim Caliph and there were many objections about showing the movie. I am not saying Muslims should accept any anti-Muslim media production, but it is very important not to let the masses decide how to handle it.
Egypt, Libya and Yemen are still in the grip of the Arab Spring. And it is very easy for unwanted hands to try to take away the Arab Spring achievements. And we don’t want to see more innocent people lose their lives. In these situations, wisdom is the key. Civil unrest can be ignited by a book or an online movie.
This article is exclusive to Arab News.
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