Deeply hurt by $5 million anti-Prophet movie, Muslims told to ignore it

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Many leaders and organizations in New Delhi, including those in Okhla, have condemned the $5 million anti-Prophet movie screened in a small theater in Los Angeles, United States, in the summer. Called Innocence of Muslims produced by anti-Islam campaigners in the U.S. the movie mocked Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). They have urged Muslims to ignore it and not take law and order in their hands.

Criticizing the amateurish video that was produced in the U.S. and later excerpted for 14 minutes and uploaded on YouTube in July, the Jamaat-E-Islami Hind (JEIH) president Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umri said the American government has failed in its efforts to bring an end to such anti-Islam campaigns in its country.

Efforts of a few haters of Islam to tarnish the religion by denigrating its prophet is not going to have any impact as many earlier efforts have failed, he said. He expressed his deep concern over the string of assaults that unfolded in several Muslim countries, including Yemen, Egypt and the storming of a U.S. consulate in Libya.

Violent attack condemned
Condemning the violent attack on US consulate in Benghazi, Libya in which enraged protesters killed an US ambassador and three other Americans, he said: “Muslims should think twice before using violence as a mean to express their anger over the anti-Islam movie. It is un-Islamic to punish innocent citizens for a crime that is not committed by them.”

Maulana Umri has urged the Indian government to immediately act against YouTube by blocking the URL. Also, he wants the US government to punish the filmmaker, who according to some media reports is a Coptic Christian and was convicted in 2009 bank fraud and now has gone underground fearing for his life.

Another Muslim organization, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, also condemned the movie. The controversial movie has attracted criticism from people all around the world.

Full of incitement and insulting
Las Vegas, Nevada-based activist and writer Aslam Abdullah, whose relatives and friends also reside in Jamia Nagar, wrote on his Facebook account: “I saw the movie Innocence of Muslims. It appears that it is written by someone who knew Arabic language and culture well and Islam well.

“It is not based on ignorance. It is full of incitement and insulting. It is full with violence and sexual contents. It is a product of a sick mind that wants to heighten hatred against Islam and Muslims among Jews and Christians. It is very provocative movie and it is neither art, nor fiction, nor stupidity. It is a rant and rage against Islam.

“Muslims of Egypt and Libya should have ignored this movie. Islam has survived 1433 years of propaganda and rage.”

Learn from the Muslims of Andalusia (Spain)
His post yielded positive result as Shakil Rai wrote on Facebook: “There is a lesson for modern Muslims to learn from the Muslims of Andalusia (Spain) in the treatment of detractors and hate mongers. At one stage Christian zealots were being sent to Muslim lands as provocateurs with a mission to heap insult and profanities on the Prophet of Islam in public places and provoke Muslim authorities to react.

Once Muslim authorities realized that it was a scheme they stopped prosecuting them and treated them in a manner that minimized their public exposure and tried to ignore them. Why we cannot do the same, today.”

Christians interested in life of Prophet
Abdullah further wrote: “So the real purpose of the movie was to make Muslims hate their religion and convert to Christianity as is explained by the consultant of the movie. To Steve Klein, today in Las Vegas, some 34 non-Muslims, mainly Christians and Mormons visited the Jamia masjid to know more about Islam and get a copy of the Quran. They were interested in the life of Prophet Muhammad. An airlines flight attendant spent four hours in the masjid meditating and asking questions about Islam. Americans are not naive. They know how to differentiate between hate and fairness.”

Block URL, memorandum submitted
In Hyderabad, a memorandum was submitted to Google at its office by a delegation of the Professional youth led by Khaleequr Rahman demanding the search engine giant and owner of YouTube to remove the controversial videos from its site.

The YouTube management assured to convey our sentiments to their headquarters, according to a Facebook post. Syed Faheem, Gulam Ghouse Jeelani, Shahed Sayeed and others were part of the delegation.