Ruzan Sarwar: You Give
Muslims a Bad Name
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Home Popular Blog
September 17, 2012 11:42:56
On Friday, there were protests
here in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
where I now live. A thousand
members of the radical Islamist
Khelafat Andolon group
decided to storm the American
Embassy, not a mile from my
house. They didn't get very far
before being stopped by
security forces. And the protests
were, thankfully, not violent yet,
though the group has
threatened to blockade the
embassy in the days to come.
In a nation like Bangladesh
where political strife is much
more common, it is less easy to
digest that a secular state is so
up in arms about a religion-
centric video that is, at its core,
poorly produced, ludicrously
exaggerated and pettily absurd.
If you watch the video, it is
insulting, to be sure. There is no
excuse for filmmaker Nakoula
Basseley Nakoula's hate-filled
film portraying the Prophet
Muhammed as barbaric and a
womanizer. Should it really have
sparked violence across the
globe? Of course not.
Let me be clear, this is not to
detract from the video's
insensitivity and offensive
depictions of the Islamic faith.
But, let's put things into
perspective. This world is an
offensive place. There is no way
to circumvent that reality. When
I wrote about immigration
policy, a number of the
comments I got were nothing
short of uncivilized. If someone
decides to write about roses
and sunflowers, I can almost
guarantee that, housed within
the comments on the
hypothetical piece, is someone
who despises and is highly
offended by both. However, the
way to address what you do not
agree with is not through
violent protest; it is through
discourse and dialogue.
When an offensive video like
Nakoula's incites mass, violent
protests that (in Libya) result in
killings, a question has to be
asked about the severity and
ludicrous proportions of the
responses. It is about as far
from retributive justice as can
be. What has to be understood
is that at the core of the video
and these protests are radical
extremists of both the Christian
and Islamic faiths. Their aim is to
destabilize. Religion is meant to
provide moral and spiritual
guidance. It is meant to create
understanding and acceptance.
It is meant to promote
tolerance. Radical factions
(whether Muslim, Christian,
Jewish or any of a number of
other world faiths) ignore these
very foundations of religion in
their rhetoric, to dangerous
ends.
Returning to the issue at hand,
we have to question what is
behind these protests. Surely,
the reaction is not because of a
single 14-minute video. It is
illogical to react in this violent a
manner to a video. Extremists
have used it, instead, as a
catalyst to further their vicious
agenda. Unfortunately, they are
succeeding. Extremists prey
upon the uncontrolled passions
and zeal of a people, regardless
of faith. If the Muslim world,
with all its law-abiding,
productive moderates and
progressives, allows itself to fall
victim to its extremist factions,
there will never be peace. At
the same time, those of other
religions, cultures, and
backgrounds must recognize
that the majority of Muslims do
not hold the same views as
those who want to create
hatred, conflict, and discord. In
this case, the few do not
represent the many. Radicals are
not revolutionaries; they are
hate-driven war-mongers.

^^^^
Culled from www.huffingtonpost.com/blackberry/p.html?id=1886107