The (now) much famous film has caused a firestorm in the Muslim world. The film is the epitome of crassness and ignominy. But it doesn’t take a genius to pin point that out. What does seem to be a Herculean task for some is to understand the social and economic implications of such vast and violent outrage. In an attempt to tame the views of those who are still hot-blooded and wish to act irrationally on some deep-rooted hatred, this is a call, an essay with the aim to hopefully, trace the line between protest and uproar.
Salman Rushdie, a British novelist spoke in terms that encapsulate the essence of the film. When questioned about it, he said, “There are two things to talk about, the first, is the YouTube video, and the second is the response,” he said. “The video is trashy. It’s badly made, it may be the worst video on YouTube, and that’s saying something, competing with all those videos of people’s cats. “And its intent was to stir trouble,” he continued. “As I understand, the video was around for a year, before it was dubbed into Arabic and intentionally sent to several people with the goal of getting them in a bad mood. And that worked.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. What started out as a barely known, obscure film that lurked in the shadows of YouTube soon emerged and captured the attention of thousands of people all around the world. The film-maker, is now probably very wealthy, and moreover, quite certainly very happy. Is this what we wanted? We saw the video, and we stormed to the streets, with our flags and our tiny banners. Others followed with sticks, stumbling along the boundaries of the embassy, aiming to strike at it. Let me just throw in a few numbers. At least15 people were killed, more than 120 were injured, and needless to say, ramifications on business were severe. Many shot bullets into the air, mobs roamed like flocks, throwing anything tangible at the police. Colossal damage took place and what started out as a day labeled as "Love of Prophet Muhammad Day", had a rather ironic ring to it. Is this how he would have dealt with such a situation, one asks? Certainly there is not love here, there is only violence.
The United States took a diplomatic stance, they condemned the video but there was not much they could even do. Abiding by their rigid constitution, they only followed the First Amendment. So to blame them for the movie is ludicrous. There is no one to blame but the film maker, Mosab Hassan Yousef himself. Why are our emotions and actions governed by him? Have we not already given him the satisfaction of what he wanted from us? He yearned for popularity. We handed it to him in the worst way we knew how. We can probably, and might as well even, imagine him coyly sitting and smirking at his success. What a shame.
Our economy suffered, as though it’s not already facing enough setbacks. Businesses went out of order, the stagnation in the market led to no progress. There was a film made in America and we blow up our own people. Oh and the icing on the cake is this, he recently told the LA times he had already cast a "Hollywood actor" in the title role of his $30 million film, titled Muhammad. His work started out on YouTube as a free-for-all, menial ‘trailer’ and he’s just working his way up. But he now has the funds to do it, and no matter how many people we kill, or things we burn, we can’t stop him. We can however deal with it by condemning it, making sure that he suffers losses by not promoting the film in anyway.
So I conclude this rant by saying that, the internet is a pool of rubble, mixed emotions and irascible people. When people ignore it and choose to ignore it, a lot of the garbage remains unearthed. This should have been the case here. So I urge that next time something similar happens we think before we act, for we are only harming innocent people.
Shanzeh Agrawala
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