Learn, and lighten up!

The United States is once again at the receiving end of hate and anger following the screening of an anti-Islamic film apparently produced by an American. The violence has already claimed the life of the US ambassador to Libya, along with four others when protesters fired rocket-propelled grenades and burned the US embassy. Ambassador Chris Stevens died of asphyxiation. A horrible way to die, indeed.

It is not yet clear if the attack on the US embassy in the Libyan city of Benghazi was perpetrated by angry protesters or by Al-Qaeda itself! Based on how the embassy was attacked, it seemed well-planned and calculated, and it rode on the vented anger over the film as additional cover for the attack. But now, Islamists have entered the fray, and widespread protests in other countries aimed at US embassies have begun! The supposed producer of the film has already gone into hiding. Right. Some people just don’t get the message. Some people just don’t know how to think. They should really learn!

We have seen these kinds of protests before. From Salman Rushdie’s book to that Danish cartoon, Muslims have protested any form of ridicule, controversy, and question towards their religion, and they do not take these lightly nor sitting down. Islamists do much of the violence and dirty work against these blasphemous materials, which has always left everyone in a quandary. On one hand, we have Muslims professing that Islam is not a religion of violence, nor does it believe in it. Yet when something like this comes up, it is sure to set the Islamists crazy with rage! Islam is complicated, to say the least.

Now we have an Islamic leader from Saudi Arabia saying that the film cannot hurt Islam in any way, in an attempt at damage control. With several US embassies at the brink of being stormed by Muslims (not even Islamists which cause most of the troubles of the world), catastrophes are just waiting to happen. Indeed, what can a film do to a religion? There was an uproar over the film “The Da Vince Code”, with the church saying that it would sow confusion and doubt among its followers. It cam and went without a whimper! But then again, this is Islam, which the world is still trying to fully understand.

The US is now in the defensive, as embassies in places like Yemen, Tunisia and even Egypt are coming under siege from the fanatics. It must be frustrating to be an American. While you embassies are attacked and your ambassadors getting killed, you still have to exercise restraint. Would that day come when all the restraints come off, and a country starts to rightly defend itself from the fanatics of the world? Would you blame that country?

I sincerely hope this other Arab Uprising subsides peacefully. And I really wish, the US would take out the Al-Qaeda threats once and for all. Enough is enough. I would tell the Islamists to lighten up, as it’s just a film! Perhaps they could make a film of their own ridiculing everyone else in the world. I know we won’t mind, right?