14 minutes of madness with a method

Unless the deaths of US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three of his colleagues were a pre-planned terror plot coinciding with this year’s anniversary of remembering 9/11, many analysts argue that the online posting of that very video clip led to the atrocities as well as demonstrations.

After having seen the trailer I suppose that those behind its making and distribution are no innocent young adults who by chance ventured into video making and figuratively speaking “overshot” the runway of what constitutes good cinematographic taste.

Those who made the clip -- and apparently an entire film -- carefully scripted each word, to give it a deliberate deeper meaning and use the various shots and takes to portray Islam as representing this planet’s aggregated evil -- including depicting Muslims as being up for murder, womanizing, child molestation and senseless violence in more general terms.

In this context the producers of these moving images chose to use the Prophet Muhammad as being responsible for all of this, and what’s more, as actually legitimizing his actions by citing the Quran. Hence, the people behind the “Muhammad Movie Trailer” purposely decided to portray the sacred Prophet in not just a negative but villainous light.

The people behind the film and video must have had a master-plan. There are people out there who with their not just cold-hearted but cold-blooded actions wish to create havoc, aimed at positioning various groups of society against each other and ultimately hoping to promote a new war between the various religions.

Although some of the actors today seem to distance them from how the end-product looks -- have they not read the manuscript before committing themselves? -- the makers may have achieved what they may have had in mind: A violent mob attacks American interests; those who were attacked perhaps even harbor thoughts about revenge and public opinion initially condemns the killing of innocent people instead of watching and analyzing the contents of the video, which allegedly led to that very outbreak of violence. A vicious circle in the making, not just a movie! If true that the video sparked the attacks its makers are responsible for promoting madness albeit with a method in its purest form!

Later on declaring we did not expect such a violent reaction in Muslim countries is declaring both the American as well as global audience not just of being incapable of telling right from wrong but as plain stupid. Hence, there was a master-plan, there was timing, and there was online publishing in the full knowledge that some more extreme factions in the above mentioned countries only wait for the tiniest signal to vent their anger against all things Western, in particular American. And of course there are political extremists active in those countries as they are in many other, non-Muslim countries, too.

Yet no video justifies the slaying of innocent people. Those behind the killings must be brought to justice. Finding them will be a litmus test for Libya’s hopefully one-day-soon blossoming civil society. US diplomats will for sure reconsider security details.

Besides, shall the original makers of the movie first of all be identified (are they American of Jewish background as they claim or are those who say we made the movie perhaps nothing more than proxies for shadowy, Islamophobic organizations?) and second be prosecuted? Have they engaged in criminal activity? Have they violated US or any other country’s laws? Tricky questions! Or have they exercised their rights of free speech? Where is the borderline between free speech and inciting hatred?

If I were a 10 year old child and by chance stumbled upon the video online I would ask my parents: “Daddy, are these people really bad? What about our Muslim neighbors down the road? Are they bad people, too?” Society must find ways to teach our children -- who may become future video clip or film makers -- that we live in a shared, multicultural and multi-faith world without erasing our fundamental freedoms.