19th September ‘12
It was another morose and sweltering afternoon in Chennai. What made the sweating and the heat worse was that the bus wasn’t moving from its place for the last 25 minutes and with the driver turning off the engine, there didn’t seem to be any chances of the bus moving in any short while either. With the music player and the book I was reading proving incapable of offering any comfort, I turned to listen to the talks of the people around me. I heard that the traffic in the city was diverted from towards Mount Road to the Beach Road. The cause – people are staging protest against American Government at Mount Road!
Then slowly the information spread across the bus – there was this blasphemous movie produced in the USA, which has shown the Prophet Mohammed in a very bad light. And, all the Muslims are protesting against it. I was just starting to wonder – are we moving in the right direction and are we fighting in the right way!
I don’t remember the exact verse, but having read the Holy Koran out of respect and interest, I can say for sure that there is a verse to this effect, which, when paraphrased, goes like this – “When the ignorant and non-believing people argue, the wise, believing people will not argue with them, but rather they’d say ‘Peace be upon you’ and move ahead with their work”. Now I know that some of the wisest and well-meaning people are fighting against the movie. But what is the point in fighting against the movie when the best way to defeat it would be to ignore it?!
First of all, not many people were aware of the movie in the first place. Thanks to these ‘protests’ and ‘road-blockades’ the word about the movie has spread and the same is all over the news, social networks, calls and every other form of media. More people are now curious to see the movie, which has only resulted in the movie becoming more popular than it ought to have been in the first place.
Second, being a so-called ‘secular’ country, the Indian government has managed to block the access to the movie in Youtube and some other countries in the Asian region have also done the same. But as we all know better, Youtube is only one option to spread videos or content of graphic nature. In this age of fast networks and instant interactions, it is almost impossible to prevent the spreading of any information. The best way to defeat the movie would have been to not speak about it at all, rather than create quite a ruckus over it.
Three, any sane person would agree that the Prophet, as like any other great soul that walked on this Earth, is a person worthy of respect and casting aspersions on such a person is only the work of uncivilized, dirty and immature mind. We’d rather go by ignoring such dimwits, rather than start up arguing with such people at their levels and bring down the respectable Prophet to the level of an ordinary human being in need of explanation and justification. Because, those who stand the middle-ground will never be bothered about who says what about the people they respect and those non-believers are going to see only what they want to!
Four, what are we trying to prove by storming into the offices of the American Embassy?! The sight of gun-wielding policemen, prepared to confront any crowd and standing vigil at the vicinity of the Embassy is sore. Will the Prophet or for that matter even Allah the God Himself will really accept hurting the innocent ones in the name of fighting blasphemy?! If you claim that not all Muslims are terrorists and bad people – I believe strongly that Muslims aren’t terrorists - you have to equally trust that not all Americans are bad and against Islam either. Just because one idiot made a dumb movie doesn’t make the whole of Americans blasphemers.
Already one precious life is lost in these ‘protests’ against the movie. And, the more we indulge in violence like pelting stones and hurting innocent bystanders, we are only adding fuel to the fire. It is a shot in the arm for those detractors to attack the tenets of Islam with a much higher vigor. They can now claim that Islam is more about terrorism and violence than about love and peace. Should we give them a chance for that?!
Just imagine yourself as one of the passengers. You might be a pregnant woman feeling queasy, or an old man that didn’t get any seat in the bus, or a young girl who is suffering from nature’s calls but unable to find a place to go, a guy who is going for office or any urgent time-based commitment. Will you be accepting the cause that is being fought for – no matter how genuine or worthy it might be?! Or will you be feeling angry against the people that are blocking the road and obstructing the traffic?! Trust me, on these occasions, people feel more against the agitators rather than in side with the cause.
My humble opinion is, the movie should have been ignored and let die a silent death, rather than having been given such a huge popularity. All my experiences with the followers of Islam have been pleasant and peaceful. I remember friends who shared food and clothes with the poor voluntarily, people who spoke well and practised against social ills of drinking and smoking, friends who helped the studies of fellow students without expecting anything in return, people who helped those in financial struggle and lent them money without taking any interest, a friend who worked hard in the evenings in beedi workshops to save his poor family and continue his studies but who was high in self-respect that he refused to accept any monetary help from others and a poor old woman who used to sell snacks near my school and made two visits to the Haj with her meager earnings!
When there comes a time to guide my younger generation, I will talk to them only about all those nice friends, the goodness of Islam as a religion, the rights of women as given in Islam, the five noble duties of a Muslim, how Islam is against the social evils of gambling, adultery, adulteration, smoking, drinking, money-lending and so on. I don’t even have time to watch or remember such filthy movies or change my good opinions about Islam over such meaningless rubbish produced by some nondescript moron. Because I have read the Quran and understood the message and also none of the Muslim friends that I was fortunate to have, had ever carried a weapon or bomb in his hands or even at home. All that I had felt with my friends of Islam, or for that matter, friends of any religion, is only love and warmth and a feeling of being with an extended family.
During childhood, I was so scared of dogs. My father used to tell me that I shouldn’t be scared and should not definitely run when they bark. He told me that if I run, they are going to chase me and make it all the more difficult for me. He told me that I should rather ignore them and keep walking without even looking at them. Whenever I come across dogs, I still remember his words. Of course, the dogs still bark, bare their teeth and snarl for a while. But as I move ahead on my path ignoring them completely, they just whine and go back to their lazy and lowly existence.
I wish you people try to understand what I am trying to convey! Islam is a way of life and not just a religion. Prophet Mohammed does not need us to protest and protect his name. He is a great human being for the things that he was able to convey to us. Those who are wise will always know it and there is no way for the not-so-wise to understand his greatness. As Quran says in another place, ‘only people whom Allah has ordained, will be able to understand His messages. He has already sealed the minds of the ignorant and He has raised a curtain around them. They are destined to wallow in ignorance’!
Let us stop stoning every dog that barks at us and let us proceed on the path of positive progress by spreading the good things about Islam. I prefer speaking good things about Islam and thus proving the detractors wrong. Pelting stones and obstructing lives of the innocent people is not Islam. Because Islam for me is about the five sacred duties and the unwavering loyalty to the One God and belief in words of His prophet! Nothing else!
