Provocative film must be ignored

EVERY so often an act of provocation, so deliberately insulting to the very tenets Muslims hold sacred that it cannot but elicit anger and disgust across the Muslim world, makes an appearance on the world stage to raging headlines.

Such an act can be a cartoon, the burning of Qurans, insulting parodies or, as in the latest act of provocation, a movie like Innocence of Muslims.

The agent provocateurs achieve their aims because some Muslims react with anger and violence, playing into the hands of those who want to perpetuate the stereotype of Islam as a religion of violence and Muslims as intolerant and destructive.

There are today so many false-flag operations and third-force activities being orchestrated in Muslimmajority countries that it is hard to know the truth about anything that we see.

Notwithstanding this, the South African Muslim Network (Samnet) condemns all acts of violence perpetrated by any individual or organisation, Muslim or not, in apparent response to the movie Innocence of Muslims.

The movie, reportedly spawned by a Jewish Israeli and promoted by a right wing fundamentalist Christian, is a crass piece of junk not worthy of comment on its content or production.

We urge Muslims all over the world not to fall into the obviously designed trap to react to the movie, giving it publicity not worthy of our time and beliefs.

Faisal Suliman, Chairperson, Samnet