For these past days, all the news agencies, through the TV, newspapers and the Internet, report about the rage of the Muslim world against the irreverence of an insulting film called “Innocence of Muslims”.
Similar films have been made about Jesus Christ, and the Christian world hardly react to such insults and blasphemies. The Muslims have a completely different attitude. For them, the slightest word or gesture that may be interpreted as an insult is considered a big offense and big crowds come to the streets demanding retribution and punishment.
The perception of being dominated
They have the perception that the Western world despises them and tries to dominated and exploit them, and they react with violence, taking justice into their own hands, destroying the property of innocent people and even killing people who have been their friends (like the American ambassador to Libya). They cannot understand that a democratic government has no power to control the media or to decide which films may be made or not.
Rejection of Western culture
The violent demonstrations that we have taken place are also a rejection of a society that lost its way, where nothing is sacred and where the only procured values are convenience, profit, fame, influence and power. Everything and everybody can be laughed at and be treated irreverent and disrespectfully.
Jesus and Muhammad: two different attitudes
Jesus and Muhammad had completely different attitudes and approaches to society, and this may help to explain some of the different attitudes that we find nowadays:
- Jesus presented himself as a servant, humbling himself to the point of death on a cross.
In an effort to explain Jesus’ attitude, the first Christians used the prophet Isaiah’s poem about the Servant of the Lord (YHWH):
“For my part, I made no resistance,
neither did I turn away.
I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;
I did not cover my face
against insult and spittle.” – Is 50:5-6
Like their master, throughout the ages, many Christians have suffered abuse and persecution. Jesus warned his disciples, telling them that they are not more than their master.
- Muhammad was not only the founder of a religion, but also the founder of a state, which in a short while became an empire. In Islam, state and religion are the sides of the same coin. Any disrespect to religion is seen as a threat to the state and to society.
Irreverence and disrespect
The prevalent attitude in most of the Western societies, where irreverence and disrespect are the trademark of modernity (or postmodernity), is full of arrogance, always ready to trample under their feet what is considered sacred by many people. Those who do so cause injure and inflict pain on many people, and lead them to violence. And all that is done in the name of human rights. Maybe, we should speak less about our rights and speak more about our duties towards the others.
Radicalism and fundamentalism
On the other side, crowds are being manipulated by radicals and fundamentalists, who reject everything that is different and that challenges their understanding of the world. All those who don’t accept their religious and political code are considered enemies and should be destroyed. And all that is done in the name of God. We may ask if God is a bloody God, because if he is, then he is not God at all.
We must remember that the majority of Muslims are peaceful people, who look with dismay at what is being done among them by a small group of radical people.
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