Exilian
Art, Writing, and Learning: The Clerisy Quarter => Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza => Topic started by: Othko97 on September 18, 2012, 12:53:46 AM
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You've probably already heard about this, but I thought I'd share it and find out your views. First, some background:
A few days ago a video was uploaded basically illustrating (although in a highly exaggerated and negative light) some things which Muhammed allegedly did, taken from the Qu'ran. This, as you have no doubt guessed, was met with complete rage from many Muslims (although most just carried on as normal), especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This has led to protests across the globe, most of them violent and quite extremist, although there have also been some peaceful protests. The riots have resulted in the attacking of the US Embassy in Cairo and the deaths of 4 Americans, one of whom was the US Ambassador to Libya (n.b. the protesters seemed to blame America in general, rather than the specific group who created the video, leading to violent anti-US protests). There were also attacks on many other US consulates in Middle Eastern Countries. The video also allegedly fuelled a Taliban attack on the heavily fortified Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, which killed 2 US Marines. Some Islamic religious and political leaders (there isn't much of a line as many countries have a religious leader as Head of State) are also calling for protests until the USA prevents more similar clips, although these will likely be more peaceful.
Further Reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19631471 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19631471)
So, what are your views on this issue?
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"If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear."
- Gene Roddenberry
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I went and found the movie.
People really died for that armadillo? The only people who might deserve to die for something to do with that video were the people whom made it as it is that pathetic.
Not that I'm saying they should die. Just that it really is a crap piece of movie-making.
Unbelievably bad. :P
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Basically - and I don't mean this flippantly - we as the western countries need to be spending a damn sight more on public relations in the Middle East. Britain is one of the most tolerant and Islam-friendly societies in the world in many ways, it's clear that many of those taking part in these protests are just massively uninformed about how the west works and the fact that this had nothing whatsoever to do with the ordinary governments or people of the US or Europe.
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In my humble opinion it's a bit stupid of the protesters. They watched a video which portrayed the founder of their religion (whose values they follow) as a violent and aggressive bigot. To try and stop this, they were violent, aggressive bigots; can they not see how that slightly undermines their own argument there? Then they don't seem to realise that if they hadn't kicked up this huge fuss about the video nobody would have seen it, they just advertised a video they see as offensive.
I also agree with Jubal, they clearly have no idea how western society works, as they saw content made by someone in the US and immediately blamed the US government, which isn't quite how things work over here. That and the poor quality of the video should really have told the "protesters" that this wasn't the doing of a large organisation...
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Well said, Cloneman.
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I think it's also worth saying that these protesters are hardly a majority, as evidenced by the fact the Libyans have had mass protests kicking out radical militia groups:
http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E8KM1RQ20120923?feedType=RSS&feedName=libyaNews
http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=293160
Which is all fairly good news for once.
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Yeah, I'm glad there are some people actually sticking up for those who aren't violent thugs.
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Particularly in North Africa the Islamists really aren't that popular; over ninety percent of Libyans in polling wanted the (pretty liberal/moderate) government to take over security and for Islamist militias to immediately disband.