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?
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… Read more »
#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 –… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »