Thai-Muslim women peacefully protest the film “The Innocence of Muslims”
AP photo/Apichart Weerawong
For those of us in the West, it can be hard to understand exactly what is happening in a culture that often feels very distant from ours, one centered so geographically far from us. We see the nightly news, we read headlines (like Newsweek’s “Muslim Rage”) and we wonder exactly who are the people raging, and against whom?
By the looks of the media, Muslim people everywhere must be stewing in hate toward the West—and yet many of us know in our hearts and minds that is not true. Perhaps we know it because we have Muslim friends and neighbors, perhaps we know it because we are educated about the ways in which the media can sometimes manipulate the truth, create scare tactics, and offer a biased perspective on subjects in order to capitalize upon fears already at work within the public consciousness.
In order to make sense of it and help people navigate the media, Avaaz.org has a quick and easy page full of information that they’ve called “The One Thing Everyone Should Read on ‘Muslim Rage’”. Check it out and the let us know what you think, and how it affected you.
What do you think? Has the media blown “Muslim Rage” out of proportion, creating an even deeper culture of anti-Islamic sentiment in the West?
What do you think of the “Muslim Rage” trope in the media?
How about Avaaz.org’s coverage of “Muslim Rage”and their efforts to explain the truth behind the media firestorm surrounding “The Innocence of Muslims” and the tragic and devastating death of Ambassador Stevens and others in the aftermath?
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I realize that the violent protests only represent a tiny minority of crazies but I am deeply bothered by the apparent widespread perception that “America” is responsible for this film. The guy behind the film is an Egyptian immigrant from what I understand. Why aren’t people protesting against Egyptians? And yes I think I heard that some lunatic evangelical Christians were involved but that still isn’t “America.” That’s just individuals wo are doing what they want to do. How is “America” supposed to,stop them? Americans don’t take to the streets en masse, peacefully or not, to protest against Islam every time an Islamic leader says something stupid about America. We didn’t protest in front of Saudi embassies after 911. I’ve really lost patience and I don’t care anymore to try to understand a culture that appears to have no understanding of the values of free speech and secularism which I hold dear. I’ve just stopped caring at this point. I know that probably sounds politically incorrect. But actually I dislike religious fanatics of all kinds and I’m not making an exception for Islam.
i’m a moslem myself, and believe me, i also hate religious fanatics, including moslem fanatics. Just to remind you that like there lots of average christian who rarely go to church and dont really care about people make jokes of jesus, there lots of moslems behave like that too. I live in Indonesia, 90% of us are moslems, and believe me, majority of Indonesia’s people, like me, myfriend,my family, really hate moslem fanatics. The moslem fanatics organization, like FPI, are the number one public enemy in Indonesia. Thats true. And while i always do prayer five times a day, i never got angry for other people making jokes and accusing Mohammed and my religion . Just want to tell you, not all moslems are fanatics.
#MuslimRage – with hashtag = Lazy Journalism and Editors who can’t be bothered to cover a complex issue with any degree of professionalism. It’s so odd but the only country that is convinced that rage is in play is the USA – or rather the US media!
… they also like people being stressed as they consume more news and generate higher advertising revenues.
When you have geopolitics in play it is funny how it gets played out. US rages it’s all about rights and freedoms – other players on the world stage speak up and protests a bit – it’s all Rage and they hates all America … and mom’s apple pie too!
The double standards are fascinating – as is the view that only one word view has to be correct and all others are wrong and need to be changed.
I read the AVAAZ article and it’s pretty much what I expected. There were a few things that were curious.
“1. Early estimates put participation in anti-film protests at between 0.001 and 0.007% of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims – a tiny fraction of those who marched for democracy in the Arab spring.”
That would be anywhere from 150,000,000 to over 1 billion people. How many Muslims live in or near large cities to form these protest? How many Muslims knew of the film? How many 1 year old children were protesting? It’s dishonest to take the total number of the world’s Muslim population and match tit to the number of protestors instead of matching it to the total number of Muslims who could have protested. It should still be a relatively small proportion, but not as small as advertised.
“4. Apart from attacks by radical militant groups in Libya and Afghanistan, a survey of news reports on 20 September suggested that actual protesters had killed a total of zero people. The deaths cited by media were largely protesters killed by police.”
Why are the police killing peaceful protestors? That doesn’t make sense. If the protests became violent, how do you know that the protestors weren’t prevented from killing anyone because the authorities used deadly force? I don’t see how the embassies would have been breached if deadly force was used to protect them.
“5. Pretty much every major leader, Muslim and western, has condemned the film, and pretty much every leader, Muslim and western, has condemned any violence that might be committed in response.”
From what I understand it took at the minimum several days before any non-western Muslim leaders spoke up against the violence. It may have been the western criticism of the silence that caused them to speak out.
“7. After the attack in Benghazi, ordinary people turned out on the streets in Benghazi and Tripoli with signs, many of them in English, apologising and saying the violence did not represent them or their religion.”
The first report I saw of this was from a mainstream news source. Is the author looking at the mainstream media as a whole or only those outlets that support the position of the article?
I know a few Muslims they ranged from the religious to non-practicing. They all seem decent, well-adjusted people. I suspect that most Muslims are like every other person will get upset, but like the fake Newsweek covers suggest, have more important life issues to deal with.