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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Muslim leaders need to incite less, understand more -- Failure to comprehend West means they lose all support

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Muslim leaders need to incite less, understand more -- Failure to comprehend West means they lose all support

Posted on Monday, September 17, 2012 at 08:43 AM

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Still from movie "Innocence of Muslims"

The blood-dimmed tide was loosed again in the Middle East over the latest crazy reaction to a “film” that a five-year old would have shot better.

Have you actually watched the film that all the murder and mayhem has been about?

It is called “Innocence of Muslims” and I watched it on YouTube last night and thought it was some kind of hellish joke.

It is so badly put together and utterly impossible to follow that it is quite possibly the worst film ever made.

It makes “The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” look like “Ben Hur,” and “Ali Baba” look like high literature.
How millions of Muslims can take such grave offense that people have died because of this piece of garbage is hard to believe.

More to the point, the Muslim leadership needs to stop fueling the flames every time some idiot casts aspersions on their religion.

Catholics did not riot when the “Piss Christ” exhibition took place in New York featuring a crucifix in a jar of urine.

Nor did Jews riot when violently anti-Semitic texts were approved for schools in many Muslim countries.
I understand it is a complex issue but let’s call a spade a spade. The “movie” I watched on YouTube has as much to do with Americans and the American government as I have with Genghis Khan.

Attacking America is a reflex action of course, anti- Americanism is always the safe fallback, the better to keep the attention away from many of their own despotic leaders.

But Muslim leaders really need to come into the 21st Century and stop the demonization that is leading to such violence.

It is destroying any hope of a common understanding.

They need to look at the mote in their own eye as we all do. A parody Twitter account of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, posted: “Wow! Good thing I just bombed mosques, killed women and children and I didn’t make an anti-Muslim video! People would be after me!”

That says it all.

As W.B. Yeats wrote,

“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

Read more: Family of Irish American former Navy SEAL killed in Libyan protests mourn their “hero” - VIDEOS

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Bocktherobber | Sep 17, 2012, 11:42 AM EDT

These attacks are insanity, but let's not lump all Muslims together. That's like saying there's no difference between Catholics, Episcopalians, Greek Orthodox and the Westboro Baptist Church. What's the difference between Rev Terry Jones and your average foaming at the mouth Islamic fundamentalist cleric? Most Muslims are not bug-eyed nutcases demanding death to infidels, and most are embarrassed by the madmen who carried out the murders. Anyhow, Muslims aren't the only ones who get the wrong end of the stick. As recently as 2007, according to a Newsweek poll, 41% of Americans still believed that Iraq had something to do with the 9-11 attacks.

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Irishphotograph | Sep 17, 2012, 10:53 AM EDT

"Other than the fact that Muslims haven't killed every non-Muslim under their domain, there is very little else that they can point to as proof that theirs is a peaceful, tolerant religion. Where Islam is dominant (as in the Middle East and Pakistan) religious minorities suffer brutal persecution with little resistance. Where Islam is in the minority (as in Thailand, the Philippines and Europe) there is the threat of violence if Muslim demands are not met. Either situation seems to provide a justification for religious terrorism, which is persistent and endemic to Islamic fundamentalism. Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, most of the verses of violence in the Quran are open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran" Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad's own martial legacy and the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have resulted in a trail of blood and tears across world history"

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brian22 | Sep 17, 2012, 10:41 AM EDT

We all know about the death and destruction they have caused, is anyone able to advise me of one single benefit they have contributed to the betterment of human kind in the last 1000 years????

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wilhoef | Sep 17, 2012, 10:27 AM EDT

Careful Mr. O'Dowd. The phrase "...call a spade a spade." has racial connotations and could cause rioting in the U.S.

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southerner | Sep 17, 2012, 10:14 AM EDT

Well said Mr O'Dowd!! It seems that our Muslim brothers have a way to go to join the century in which we now live. They need to stop over reacting. They need to stop trying to kill the messenger and address the message. And they need to develop a live and let live ethos when living in non Muslim countries.The shame is that most of our brothers and sisters of that religion are betrayed by the minority who behave like idiots.

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jamieLM | Sep 17, 2012, 10:09 AM EDT

Btw: That video was disgusting and deplorable. I certainly don't condone it.

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PhlutiePhan | Sep 17, 2012, 10:07 AM EDT

Islam has an agenda. Duh! Check your history books especially the section on the Middle Ages.

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jamieLM | Sep 17, 2012, 09:56 AM EDT

Not all, but too many Muslims have no tolerance, let alone respect, for any non-Islamic religion. Too many Muslims are passive when Muslim extremists persecute and kill Christians at will, while demanding that everyone respect Muslims and Islam and its customs 24/7. Non-Islamic countries have to build mosques to accommodate a Muslim minority. How many Christian churches are being built in Islamic countries??? How many churches have been closed or destroyed in Islamic countries? Oh, that's right, we're the INFIDELS. Tolerance is a one-way street. These same Muslims spew hatred for America while expecting and accepting huge amounts of U.S. money. Attacking the West, especially the U.S., is just an excuse to turn the attention away from their own dismal failures, blaming others for all their problems. They're jealous of Western successes. This video was just an excuse to vent.

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Eschetic | Sep 17, 2012, 09:37 AM EDT

Wise people have always said - never condemn until you have walked a mile in the other person's sandals. OF COURSE those responding violently to religious provocation should be more sensitive - but we in the west ALSO need need to understand the cultural ground rules of other cultures (and anyone who doesn't think Fundamentalists in the US have not responded with deadly violence to what they perceived as attacks on their beliefs doesn't know the history of their own country). Those who knowingly provoke (as these film makers and those right wing politicos who do not denounce them do) are equally as guilty as those who riot.

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