Does Islam have a place in the 21st Century?

Oh dear.  Another year another Islamic over reaction.  You remember last year when Muslims went ballistic over a picture of Minnie Mouse in a hijab? This time the Islamic world is in uproar over a pathetic amateur video depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a violent womaniser.  Their fury has resulted in anti-US violence rippling through the Middle East and North Africa like a religious Tsunami.

This week the US embassy in Benghazi was stormed by protestors who killed US ambassador Christopher Stevens along with 3 bodyguards in a hail of rocket fire. In Cairo the US embassy was breached with protestors ripping down the American flag whilst in the Yemen there were violent clashes between security forces and protestors attempting to break into the embassy.  The fact that the US helped liberate Libya and Egypt is perhaps and salient detail overlooked by the killers and those on streets demanding the expulsion of US diplomats.

 

Even more baffling are attacks on the UK and German embassies in Sudan perhaps by idiots who aren't that clued up on their geography. Last time I looked England and Germany weren't US states.  This goes some way to underlining the mindless nature of the violence.  Muslims seemingly ant to attack anything remotely western.

I can understand that no one likes to have their beliefs mocked but where is the sense of proportionality.  Most right thinking people would consider the concept of "an eye for an eye" pretty medieval in approach in a 21st century society but Muslims even seem to want to always go one step further. I could dismiss the violence as extremism if it was just perpetrated by a few nutters but this backlash is widespread.

Before I am accused of tarring all Muslims with the same brush I appreciate there are a vast proportion of moderate Muslims who are able to handle challenges to their faith with considered and sensible responses.  However there seems to be vast tracts of the Islamic world that completely overreact whenever a satirical cartoon or a grainy film clip is aired that pokes fun or questions their principles.

It doesn't help tensions when the writer and director of the controversial film in question, Innocence of Muslims is reported to be Jewish film agent Sam Bacile.  This just rubs Semitic salt into Islamic wounds.

I have watched the offending YouTube clip and to be honest it looks like a cross between a childrens nativity play and amateur dramatic production of Life of Brian.  The only thing shocking about the content is the acting (Islam expressly prohibited any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad), It is  poorly made, badly acted and would be dismissed by anyone in the western world as nothing more than the work of 6th formers with too much time on their hands.

It seems someone with an agenda has managed to engineer a level of exposure the film never would have achieved by dubbing a clip into Arabic and circulated in the part of the world were it is going to cause maximum offense. Director Bacile may have just thought this a cunning marketing ploy but it seems to have backfired rather spectacularly.

Of course this behaviour is idiotic and the last thing the world needs right now is more religious hatred.  However I have to question the hair trigger behaviour by those in the Arab world who don't have the sense to dismiss these things outright and carry on their worship without burning or killing anything that doesn't meet their Islamic agenda.  As religions go Islam can hardly call itself progressive.

Why can't we all just get along?