A twisted lie
THE murder of eight South Africans in Kabul, Afghanistan by a suicide bomber intent on the massacre of innocents in retaliation for a movie extract posted on the internet, has brought home the horror of a spate of attacks on Westerners in a number of countries.
In some sort of ridiculous application of the doctrine of common purpose, any foreigners are seen as fair game for those seeking retribution for an inane movie called Innocence of Muslims. The fact that this production was made with the sole purpose of being insulting and inflammatory has done nothing to quell the mayhem it has spread.
Derogatory clips, articles, speeches and all manner of rubbish about all religions can be found on the internet. Some are made by fools, others by evil zealots who will rejoice when their work causes death and destruction. Some of the “retaliatory” attacks come from killers who relish the chance to join a cause, others from people genuinely outraged by an affront to their religious beliefs. But in cases such as Innocence
of Muslims, the bait should not be taken so easily. A look at the brief history of this piece of bile shows it for what it is – a roughly weaved tapestry of lies designed to cause hate and anger.
A bank fraudster in California offered people $75 a day to come to his house and act out scenes that ostensibly had nothing to do with Islam. Then he replaced the audio, putting words in the actors’ mouths, and stitched together the scenes to make an absurdly bad movie ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad.
Nobody came to watch his movie, so he posted a video excerpt on YouTube, again with little response. Then an anti-Muslim activist reposted the video with an Arabic translation and sent the link to activists and journalists in Egypt, and the anger quickly spread.
As such, Innocence of Muslims is not a freedom of speech issue. It is a twisted lie which in many countries, including South Africa, would fall foul of hate speech legislation.
Such clips can be made by anyone with a video camera, or even a smart phone, and uploaded on to the internet, making legal recourse difficult and often impracticable.
But violent reactions will just spur on more crazies intent on spreading their filth. Rather ignore them and let them stew in their own juices is the lesson that should be spread.