What Would Muhammad Do About "That Video"?

By Khaled

I received lots of feedback from Western Christians to my article “What Just Happened? A Former Muslim’s Thoughts on the “Muhammad Video””. Most of the messages were asking the same question: Why are Muslims behaving this way about the Muhammad video?

To my Arab Muslim background mind it is clear why many Muslims have to act like this. Let us say that I was programmed like these angry Muslims to certain Islamic standards and an important one of them is this: do not think, and do not do the unthinkable. In this case, the unthinkable is to ridicule Muhammad and mock him in any form especially visual presentation.

Sunni Muslims do not allow actors to play the role of Muhammad in any video or audio production that tells his story from the Islamic perspective. You never could see or hear Muhammad. This also extends to drawing Muhammad—you cannot even draw him, nor have a portrait of him, in Sunni Islam.

Now, this “insulting” video is made with an actor portraying Muhammad in a ridiculous and mocking way. Many Muslims who have never before seen their prophet being portrayed by an actor and then see him for the first time in such a shameful presentation will be greatly enraged. This also extends to any funny drawings (caricatures) of him.

So, the issue we have here is a double anathema: first, representing Muhammad by an actor or a drawing; and second, insulting him.

It did not occur to me to write this article at first.  After several Westerners inquired about why Muslims acted in this way, I fell back on my comfort zone excuse of “cultural differences.”

What finally made me write this article was a message from a close friend, who is an Arabic-speaking Middle Eastern Christian who knows a lot about Muslims and Islam. He sent me this:

"So to sum up; a bad biased clip full of unproven assumptions caused riots and the death of tens of people in several countries. As much as I disagree with the movie the question that remains is: how far is the Islamic mentality willing to go until it can deal with critique? Till when do they think we should be dealing with their ultra-sensitive ego issues?

What kind of sick narcissism, or should I say lack of self-confidence is it that leads them to such acts? Why have other nations found ways to deal with critique, but they think we should wear silk gloves if we touch any of their holy (sub)objects? They feel attacked, humiliated and discriminated, that may be the case. Across history many nations have dealt with worse and were able to overcome it."

That woke me up. If he couldn't understand why, even though he speaks the language, has been around Muslims, and has been involved with them for a great part of his life, then I cannot just say “cultural differences” anymore.

So, how could I explain this issue? Continued, here.