Thursday, 20 September 2012

The scam ‘Innocence of Muslims’ and our predictable reaction


By Aliyu Musa

This week my promise was to complete the sequence on Northern Nigeria, but Sam Bacile’s moronic and fraudulent film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ denigrating the Prophet of Islam Muhammad (SAW) compelled me to, remorsefully, eat back my word.

Some three weeks ago historian Tom Holland’s ‘Islam: The Untold Story’ was shown on UK’s Channel 4, which to the chagrin of Muslims, sought hard to deny the root and credibility of Islam as a religion. The documentary provoked a litany of complaints to both Channel 4 and Ofcom, the UK’s communication regulator.

Despite apparent evidence that it was based on a poorly researched storyline, clearly biased perception of Islam and, of course, deliberately manipulated opinions of scholars Channel 4 found it fit to pass Holland’s documentary as satisfactory. This action, in effect, leaves one with no choice but to believe there is a grand design whose intent one is yet to fully comprehend.

Bacile’s scam, therefore, comes at a time many of us are still trying to lick the wound inflicted by Holland and his accomplices at Channel 4. Yet, neither of the two shams should provoke the sort of violent reactions we saw last week and this, targeting innocent people and property. I will specifically explicate my position by briefly beaming the light on those behind ‘Innocence of Muslims’.

Sam Bacile, the alleged producer of the film, is a faceless, fraudulent and attention-seeking coward who, in reality, exists only in the imagination of one Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Coptic Christian originally from Egypt. Nakoula is, himself, a career liar and fraudster who once earned himself a bed space in jail for fraud and was only recently released on supervised probation.

Nakoula has also deceitfully operated under several aliases. His claim to being Jewish was found to be false just as actors and actresses that featured in the film claim they only found out afterwards that their dialogue was altered during post-production, with offensive references to the Prophet (SAW) and Islam superimposed. Some of them are now considering legal action.

In making the film he solicited the support of other extremist, attention seeking anti-Islam hate campaigners like the Qur’an burning Pastor Terry Jones and Steve Klein, an ex-serviceman involved with the training of Church-based paramilitary militias in California. While Jones’ role was mainly spiritual (by praying for them), Klein was recruited as their spokesman. Other anonymous members of the team, numbering 15 and presumably from the Middle East, played unspecified roles.

Given the degree of falsehood and manipulation employed by this imposter and his cohort it is likely that their real motive was to fuel a series of violent confrontations between Muslims and people of other faiths across the world. They’d probably also hoped that violence targeting American interests like the unfortunate attack on its consulate in Benghazi that led to the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens would result in the US scrambling fighter jets or firing cruise missiles to some Muslim countries in retaliation.

In their estimation all this would happen due to the usually predictable reactions of Muslims. Klein has confirmed this expectation and even suggested they were pleased with the outcome.

Agreed that no sane Muslim would watch the trailer and shrug it off, but we must seriously reconsider our manner of reaction to such provocations, especially where known clowns are the perpetrators. Inappropriate reactions like these do not correctly represent the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the greatest peacemaker and reformer there ever was.

Our Prophet was a just and merciful leader who would not allow anyone take the life of innocent persons and was always quick to forgive. Allah (SW) says: “And we have not sent you except as a mercy to mankind” (Qur’an 21:107). Abu Huraira (ra) also reported that the Prophet (SAW), in response to the suggestion that he cursed infidels, said: “I have not been sent to curse people but as a mercy to all mankind” (narrated by Muslim).

In the entire 22 years he spread Islam as Allah’s messenger he preached love and peace and restored the status of women in Arabia. He ensured the rights of people of other beliefs including Christians, Jews and pagan Arabs were equally respected. But one hardly hears such positive stories of Islam and the Prophet (SAW) as the media, especially, repetitively paint a picture of a violent religion using the acts of a few people as a parameter and, therefore, collectivise blame. And this keeps recurring because we continue to play into the hands of buffoons like Nakoula.

Our noble Prophet (SAW) is our role model. We could reflect his teachings by registering our displeasure in more responsible ways like those of us who wrote Channel 4 to complain about Holland’s documentary did.

Postscript:

This piece has been published in the Blueprint of 21/09/2012 in my Friday column.
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