By Maulana Khalid Dhorat (Masjid Hamzah, Erasmia)
Couldn’t Sam Bacile think of a better name for his blasphemous anti-Muslim movie? A producer who cannot even choose a title will certainly make a mess of the movie itself. And so it was!
With the entire Middle East in flames over the latest attempt of the west to dehumanise Islam, I decided to watch the trailer of the above movie “Innocence of Muslims,” courtesy of YouTube. I wasn’t shocked at all at the various inflammatory scenes about Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), but rather amused at the flimsy attempt of Mr (Im)bacile - an alleged porn producer and a convicted felon - to mock the greatest man who ever walked the face of mother earth. Can anyone shine a torch with a penlight battery at the sun, and expect the sun to be outshone? Never.
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I wasn’t shocked at all at the movie, not because the movie lacked in any way as far as indecency and offensiveness was concerned, but because what else could be expected from an impure human being, reared in a morally bankrupt culture and brainwashed by cheap propaganda. After watching the rather poorly produced trailer with its amateur actors, I would’ve rather re-named it “Soul of the West,” as it reveals the west and what it stands for in all its inglorious evil.
The inciting misinformation of the movie is nothing new. The flood of hatred was started way back in the 1100’s by the fanatical crusaders, and the west have merely adopted this hateful discourse as their current political discourse to stereotype Muslims as terrorists. There is only one difference between now and then. Then, the Christians believed in the concept of sacredness, but today’s secularists hold nothing sacred, including Prophet Jesus. Modern movies make millions by openly poking fun at God himself, and people have woven dozens of jokes about St. Peter standing either at the gates of heaven or hell. Directors make fun out of priests and nuns and merrily portray prophets as being gay and drunkards - all in the name of humour. Synagogues and churches are used for scenes of murder to further the intrigue, and the graveyard is the central theme of many horror movies.
All of the above aspects – God, the prophets, places of worship, the divine scriptures and the hereafter – are central aspects of belief for Muslims. They belong to a spiritual realm which Muslims hold as sacred and immutable. It is a world Muslims hold in awe, in deep reverence for one’s ultimate fate in life will be decided there. It is a world where the Almighty would reveal Himself in all His splendour, where He will exhibit His sense of justice, and when all will view the raw terrors of the fire and the boundless pleasures of paradise. Such serious matters can never be regarded as light hearted and the subject of entertainment. Muslims are humorous, but they don’t joke about God as it is unbecoming of the relationship between the Creator and the created, between the Master and His servant: but for the west, there is no spirituality, final authority nor discipline. Everything can be questioned. Indeed, people with no attachment to spirituality find it difficult to understand how a Muslim can be so devoted to the Creator and His Prophet.
Besides the movie being godless, it continuously portrays the noble Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) as a womaniser and a paedophile – qualities the west are known for. The noble Prophet had married Sayyadatina Khadijah when she was 40, well past her peak and that too, after she had proposed to him. Besides Sayyadatina Aisha, all his other wives were widows, some of whose children had no relatives to care for them. This description fits a person of great kindness and compassion, a person who never lifted a hand on his wives; unlike the west whose lecherous leaders like Bill Clinton openly had an affair with Monika Lewinsky in the oval office and whose Safe Houses are overflowing with battered wives.
The west has taught mankind the art of animalistic lust, not gentle love, in their movies. Whilst the noble Prophet commanded womenfolk to cover their bodies, the west has asked them to bare their flesh. In Prophetic times, there was no reported case of rape or incest, but in the USA alone, a woman is raped every 7 seconds! The noble Prophet made women the queen of her home, whilst the west made her a sex object to appear everywhere from soap wrappers to pornography magazines. The most popular TV shows are soapies where men and women are encouraged to fornicate for fun, and films such as “Cheaters” and “Desperate Housewives” are hits. Gone are the days when actors and actresses would joyously dance around a tree as a symbol of love in Bollywood. Even a brief kissing scene was regarded as extreme then. Who introduced the killer disease AIDS, for which there is no cure to date, to the world? Islam or the west? Who is sex crazed here?
The movie then desperately paints the noble Prophet as a war monger. But let us do some maths here. Who killed 500 000 Iraqis in the Gulf War, what about the 280 000 killed in Afghanistan? Who invaded Libya and killed Gadhafi, and who currently occupies Palestine? Who dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and who was responsible for 22.5 million lives in World War II? Who is on a mission to grab mineral resources at all costs? Definitely not the Muslims. In fact, the martyrs of the Muslim world who died defending their lands would like to thank the west for helping them gain eternal salvation. Our martyrs taunt the west from their grave for they have gained success, but the west still continues on their road of misery and failure.
What to do?
Although the movie is zero rated and not worth the attention, but those who seen it are truly disgusted. The truth of the matter is besides this movie, most western and eastern movies contain some elements of pornography, hatred and propaganda. If we shun this movie for its blasphemy, let us shun all others for its immorality. What else has the west to offer besides the above filth? But sadly, Muslims would want to enjoy all aspects of westernisation – the movies and the drama, the courting and the entertainment, the music and the wine, the wealth and the comfort - but feel hurt when the anti-religious west torments their religion. Isn’t it time to draw a line with your tormentors and become true Muslims, not just selective Muslims or anti-blasphemous Muslims?
Be that it may, those who seen the movie feel powerless at this juncture, and wish to do something sensible (rioting is not sensible) – but what? There is really no need to feel helpless or dejected. Rather, we minority Muslims should become puffed up for being noticed by a mighty power, and be proud at our noble Prophet (Peace be upon him) for continuing to irk satan and her allies 1400 years after his death. It seem that the more the west hears the name of Prophet Muhammad, the more they are spooked. The more they malign him, the more they unintentionally praise him as the very word Muhammad means “the praised one.” If a Prophet in his grave can cause the mighty west to shake, imagine a living prophet walking the face of the earth? Imagine every Muslim being an ambassador of that Prophet? Oh west, the Almighty has promised to give dominance to Islam, so unless you invent a missile to harm the Almighty Himself, rather hang up your boots and take a hike.
Today, hardly anyone knows the name of the Danish cartoonist who drew the blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, no one bothers with Zapiro who followed his example, and many have forgotten that Salman Rushdie still has a multi-million dollar bounty on his head for writing the Satanic Verses in 1989. Their cheap publicity stunts hardly lasted a few days. On the other hand, the memory of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is celebrated by more and more Muslims daily. Over 15 million Muslims visit his holy shrine in Madinah al-Munawwarah (Raudah Mubaarak) yearly and the grand Mosque can cater for upto 1.5 million people. This is besides the billions of salawaat (peace and salutations) showered upon him daily from the lips of every Muslim. The Almighty himself has elevated the name of Prophet Muhammad in the Quran: “Wa Rafa’na laka Dhikraka,” and none can debase him. By debasing a prophet, one merely debases himself. In addition, one in every four Muslim infants are named Muhammad or prefixed with Muhammad in the world today. The west fails to understand that although our noble Pophet was human, he is our ultimate connection to the Divine. That link will never be broken.
The legacy of this great Prophet will never die, and the dust will never settle with those who blaspheme him. A Persian poet once said: “Be careful with Prophet Muhammad for God may forgive a crime committed against Himself, but He never forgives those who hurt His favourite.”