That a film could lead to so much...

It seems like an old tape is being replayed. Somebody, somewhere, makes a public declaration that is considered blasphemous to Islam and parts of the world burn.

So it was when word got around that a movie made in the US showed the Prophet in a poor light. Although there were no takers when it was released some time ago, someone put the trailer of the film, Innocence of Muslims dubbed in Arabic on YouTube and that lit the fuse.

I saw parts of the trailer. It is worse than amateurish, crudely produced, but the content is incendiary. It depicts Prophet Muhammed as a philanderer, with associates who behave like goons. The Koran is depicted as containing ridiculous pronouncements.

Clearly the intent was to incite and the producers got what they wanted. There have been protests in over 20 countries and some of the protestors have even been killed in the ensuing mayhem. The US ambassador to Libya and three colleagues got killed when an angry crowd attacked the consulate in Benghazi.

There is no denying that there is a small fringe crowd of Islamophobists in the US. They run Web sites and write books warning people about the evil intent of Islam’s followers, and some of them backed this film. You can put Pastor Jones of Tampa, Florida, squarely in that club.

You remember the one who threatened to burn the Koran at a specific time and place and set off riots in several countries along with a few deaths? And we recently saw the effects of their evangelism. A gunman killed six Sikhs in a gurudwara in Wisconsin —termed a ‘hate crime’ and supposedly arising from a mistaken belief that the Sikhs were Muslims.

So, in some ways, things remain the same, but in other ways, things are different.

Sensible reaction

The Libyan government itself believes that the US consulate attack was pre-planned by an extremist group and is taking action to round up suspects as part of their investigation. Egypt and other Islamic governments have called for calm and are advising their people to protest peacefully.

I saw pictures of people in Libya, in the aftermath of the consulate attack, holding posters apologising for what happened and declaring that it wasn’t Islam. That is different and would not have happened before.

The previous times when we saw Muslim reactions to blasphemy somewhere in the world, we also saw many clerics, and government leaders adding fuel to the fire in their respective countries. Not many years ago, even a veiled attempt that challenged Islam’s orthodoxy got Salman Rushdie a fatwa and drove him into hiding for many years.

I think that the more sensible reaction among some governments and their people this time is thanks to the process the Arab spring generated that has given them more confidence.

Cause and effect pattern

We have seen other examples of Islamic outrage in the past, such as when Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a set of cartoons in 2005, considered offensive by Muslims. And again, violence spread across the Muslim world and many innocent lives were lost in the protests. Some lives were lost too in protests early this year when some US soldiers in Afghanistan threw out copies of the Koran (they said it was unknowingly) as part of their trash.

Thus, we see a pattern of cause and effect. On the one hand, the devout in Islam seem to react with ‘blinding rage.’ They seem to think that other governments are involved in denigrating Islam; perhaps because they see their own governments as all powerful. There is another explanation to the reaction of burning embassies, and businesses associated with the ‘offending’ country. Local disaffected groups take the religious outrage as an opportunity to flex their muscle and create problems for their own government. Other mischief mongers contribute, like Pastor Jones, to stir things up a bit. They know the reaction they are going to get.

Curbs on ‘free speech’

And, of course, there are the old issues about free speech out on top again. The ‘west’ and the US will officially argue that, while they regret the film, they cannot do anything about it due to free speech. Which is not really true because every society places some restriction on ‘free speech’. In the US, libel or defamation can get you taken to court.

Recent rumours in India that people of the North-East will be attacked as revenge for attacking Muslims in their region spread wildly and led to a mass exodus of people wanting to return to the safety of their origin. The Government rightly went after the mischief makers and the means they used to spread the rumours. The slippery slope is when the same argument is used by politicians to put cartoonists, bloggers and journalists behind bars; a favourite hobby of India’s chief ministers.

Anyway, this time around, the moderates among Islam have woken up and are speaking up. May their tribe increase. They need to ponder about this situation where their co-believers are so sensitive that they feel it is a demonstration of their faith to burn property and give up their own lives defending their religion. A lot more self-confidence needs to exist in a religion that has over a billion followers around the world, and whole governments devoted to its protection.

Nobody is coming out of this episode satisfied, except for the small minority who love to peddle chaos. The violent response is going to further confirm the views of many that Islam condones violence, and uses violence as a tool of political expression; some Muslim-majority countries are going to be seen as weak on governance and unable to maintain law and order in their states; and many Muslims are going to re-affirm their belief that the ‘west’ has a secret agenda to defame Islam. Some things change, but others remain the same.

(The author is professor of International Business and Strategic Management at Suffolk University, Boston, US. >blfeedback@thehindu.co.in )

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