“These Muslims are animals"

 The Innocence of Muslims

| by Layla Anwar

An Arab Woman Blues

( September 26, 2012, Fallujah, Sri Lanka Guardian)   It took me much courage to watch it - that "famous" film.

I did it in phases, because I could not stomach the Sacred being trampled upon. In phase 1, I watched 6mn of it. In phase 2. I managed the whole film, more or less, because I kept skipping scenes.

It's only a film I told myself...a bad one too, "artistically" speaking. But this is not a question about artfulness...it's about destructive creativity, and the film is only the needle that broke the camel's back.

The whole incident (and what ensued) was most interesting to observe...a certain detachment is necessary only to get closer to the truth of the matter...

Many levels to the story...a superimposition of levels, of meanings, of perceptions, of discourses, of realities...

So I watched it. The first thing that struck me is the hyper sexualization of the "character" Mohamed. I was not surprised to later read that a certain American by the name of Klein who backed/supported/funded this film (the story is still not quite clear), called Islam a "penis-driven" religion. While the producer of this film (still not quite sure who he is) called it a "cancer".

Mohamed is portrayed as a sex driven lecherous bastard, a pedophile, a cruel sadist, a pervert, and a homosexual.

In those 13mn or so of this cheap trailer, almost comic but not comic at all - you are left with the idea - Mohamed is basically an animal and a savage. He is depicted as this lowly thing, totally under the mercy of the most base impulses, a beast in human form.  This is the main idea of the film. And by correlation, anyone who follows Mohamed and his teachings is akin to Mohamed - a beast in  human form, a penis driven, cancerous thing that needs to be eliminated for one's survival.

If I want to employ terms borrowed from "orientalist" imagery - this would be "negative orientalism" at its purest. "Positive orientalism" on the other hand (even though still orientalism) would attribute more positive exotic attributes to the Other, yet still not devoid of "potential uncontrollable dangers that can erupt at any time".

The timing of the film is to be given some consideration as well : it suddenly surged on 9/11 (even though am told it was realized before), and as it so happens, before the US elections. But these are relatively minor details (even though important in their own right). What personally interests me is something of a different nature.

I will try to keep it as simple as I can...

When the protests broke out --and quite unfortunately 3 or 4 Americans lost their lives and 18 non Americans as well (protesters and police but no one pays attention to those), H.Clinton in her first press conference said : " these are a small group of Savages" and Obama promised "justice" will be done. Later. we learn military reinforcements as well as drones are sent to Yemen, Libya and Sudan.

Indeed it was an act of "savagery" to kill an American ambassador in a country that NATO just helped to "liberate", but wait a minute here...is that not what the message of the film was all about ? A "savage" prophet ?

Glenn Beck in another statement to the press said -- " these Muslims are animals". But wait a minute here, was that not the message of the film depicting the prophet as a bestial thing - an animal ?

Before I go further I want you, nay I request of you - to bear in mind that during the Wisconsin killings where innocent Sikhs were targeted - no one referred to the killers as animals or savages, ditto for the Norway killer.. Bear that in mind for a second while I continue...

So H.Clinton who is known for her hyena shriek when Gaddafi was lynched with "we came, we saw, he died", re-confirmed the message passed on by the film - the savage Muslim ( a group of them we were assured).

When the protests had spread well beyond Benghazi and Cairo...it no longer became an issue if Americans were killed but if the sanctity of the American flag was "hurt".  American flags burned from Morocco to Bangladesh, even in lousy "liberated" Iraq...

 Reuters wrote in total outrage in CAPITAL letters on Twitter - "they burned the trees surrounding the US embassy in Sudan and broke the windows" like - how could they - it was nothing but a film ?!

But was it really just about a film ? Or was it really just about a cartoon ?

Our house Muslims quick to pacify, immediately polished the shoe of the master, almost automatically..."it's just a film" they said. Just like they said "it was just a cartoon", "look at Syria" they'd conclude.

Needless to say, our house-Muslims in the past never gave two hoots about Syria...and when they did  they called the rebels "nothing but a bunch of salafis paid by the West"  oh wait, wait, till you read about our online Hijabis, the ones that would bore us to tears with their "religiosity, piousness and their hijabs" suddenly took a distance marked by an "embarrassment" with these "savages" that stormed US embassies and oh horror of horrors burned the American flag. After all, Islam is a religion of peace, as long as you are allowed to keep your accessory hijab on.

The house Muslims along with the media assured and re-assured us it was just the "salafis" - the hardcore extremists who took offense. These "salafis" "jihadists" happen to be the "savages" by association as per the film and the US government. Except in the film it was Prophet Mohammed himself.

So was it really about a film ? or was it about some subconscious message that everyone registered, or was it about US empire and its symbols ? It was all three and more...

Surely you can't convince me that the hundreds of protesters were all salafis, jihadists, surely you can't convince me that all were angry about just a film ?!

One cleric from Khasmir summed it up well --- in simple terms --- it's about time the US leaves the region.

In order to occupy a region from Afghanistan to Iraq, you need to vilify and demonize...the film is NOT a separate incident from the general American foreign policy but a continuation of it.

Protesters storming American and Western Embassies,  burning American flags, Hardees (an American hamburger joint) and Kentucky Fried Chicken -- are nothing but a symbolic response...not just to a film that depicts the Imam, the leader, the Prophet of ALL Muslims as an animal and as a savage, but to an American foreign policy that has turned the people it has occupied and whose lives it has utterly destroyed into angry "beasts".

But I will not stop here...because as I said before there are many levels to the story...the other levels being-- the hyper sexualization of the Other, the perception of violence (when committed by the Other), the stubborn resistance of notions/concepts  of "Sacredness & Sacrality" versus "West & Modernity" and last but not least a redefinition of meanings and concepts like "Democracy, Free speech" in the age of the American Empire.

PS: To note in European countries, you  can get arrested for "anti-Semitism" but not for anti Islam. Are we the "niggers" of the New World Order ?

Part 2

I would like to continue where I left off, in some part II, knowing fully well that the Western/American film is not over yet...

I hope you have realized by now that it is not about a 13mn video trailer in itself, but what about this trailer represents in the grand scheme of things.

And in this post, I would like to stress on that word "representation".  How the Other is presented/represented on some ideological/cultural level (even though I have conceptual problems with the word Culture here, but I will still use it) and how this representation serves political ends.

In my previous post, I talked about the hyper sexualization of the Other - and I gave a concrete example when I mentioned "the penis driven religion" called Islam. I have more vulgar representations of the Other, besides "penis driven" - another one I come across frequently is " with their asses up in the air" (referring to Muslim prostration during prayers). In themselves these may be "anecdotal " and consequently brushed off as some cheap shot at the Other.

However when terms used by the Western other like --"animals, beasts, savages, penis driven, and asses up in the air" are inscribed in a specific historical and political context --- they take on a different meaning altogether, they become ideological weapons...used against the Other. They no longer become a "joke" afforded by  "Free Speech"

Again, I will try to keep it as simple as I can, even though it is no simple matter and is quite complex, as it has so many levels, layers -  so to speak...

Without wanting to get into a history of Orientalism and the "representation of the other" I will draw analogies from a vivid memory...

I will start with Iraq, the cradle of Civilization, that has known no respite in lack of Civility. I will start with Abu Ghraib.

Abu Ghraib - Abu Ghraib is the perfect example of the "representation of the Other." It is not the only example yet it is my starting point.

I use the Abu Ghraib example because it is full of meaning, images, even though Abu Ghraib is now silent. And this is the power of image versus words...imagery takes over, wins over any time.

And representation of the Other requires, necessitates imagery...images...and imagination.

And since it started off with a film (an image), it is only fair that this film continues in its different episodes...

Abu Ghraib...do you remember Abu Ghraib ?

I do. Abu Ghraib is there always in the back of my mind...it is associated with Free Speech and Democracy, with Human Rights and Liberty.

A penis driven religion...a penis driven people....hooded, made to masturbate, sodomize one another, for snapshots taken by the Western man...for "laughs".

Another image  - Guantanamo, where the animal beast savage is chained...shackled in iron, in metal cages, behind metal bars...while innocent.

Images zoom through my mind...

Images stored in the collective, a history of images...images...just like that cheap film made in California...

Dehumanizing and cheap....

Dehumanizing and cheap...is that what Western Freedom is all about..?!

This is only ONE of the Questions you need to ask yourselves until I come back with more...

Part 3

 Am picking up where I left off…

Behind every White Man there’s an indigenous « Savage ».

White man, white woman --- this is not about skin color. And am tired of having to explain every word I use.

The indigenous  savage as a construct, by the white man. Am sure the Natives of the Americas and those of Africa  will understand me.  On the other hand am not sure who makes me more  angry – the White Man or his Uncle toms, because Uncle Toms abound.

Back to the tacky trailer film, followed by another set of cartoons from oh la la - La République, followed by another set of posters draping the walls of New York subway stations, as if New Yorkers were not neurotically paranoid enough. Yes indeed Mohamed and the Savage Jihadist are nothing but one --- you just can’t see the connection, the fast convenient  9/11 connection, the 7- Eleven connection, the 24/7 connection…

Rub in 9/11 whichever way you turn your head --- the savages are out, rioting, protesting and getting killed by their own Uncle Toms, to the choir of Muslim Scholars from across the Atlantic. Follow the example of the Prophet -- they patronize, from behind their altars /minbars (not minibars) and the cozy safety of their computers ---all afforded by “Free Speech”.

They may have a point – we are not Pavlov’s dogs to react to every injury -- we are just “savages” - lambs for slaughter.

A great disconnect between two realities and a widening gap – East and West. Those on the other side don’t see, don’t feel, don’t want to know. They cry Islamophobia, worry if someone touches their niqab or veil but ignore the voices coming from the other side…the savages on the other side are truly uncivilized , not like us, us living with the White Man and striving oh so much to be accepted by him (and her, of course.)

All those “third world natives” protesting in over 50 countries ---they understood nothing, but only you understand, only you understand…

They are a minority we are told. All Salafists, Jihadists, extremists.  Ban them.

France banned the protests and closed its embassies and schools in 20 countries. It even sent 60 policemen for one lone protester. Indeed we need to protect ourselves from the Savages.

Any speech if not for Israel, is considered anti-semitic in la République, criminalized by law.  But please do have a go at the Savages because we are a nation of Freedom . And French courts were quick to ban topless pictures of the English royal family. A symbolic gesture of solidarity with “Decency” against the “Grotesque."  Noblesse oblige. While in England, courts sentenced a young UK citizen  of Asian descent, Ahmed Azher -- for cursing British troops in Afghanistan, on his Facebook page.

Only when Savages protest, do things go violent.

When the Chinese stormed the Japanese embassy and burned Japanese shops across China, they were just angry protests. When 4000 Dutch teenagers pelted  Dutch police with stones, hammers, and bicycles following a Facebook Birthday party invitation ---which your lousy teenagers call the X project ( X projects have caused much damages to properties in Europe and US), they are just protesting. And what of yesterday’s rally of the Aryan March in the US protected by US police ? These can’t be savages, they are Aryan.

Besides, these Jihadists, Salafists, savages what are they protesting exactly ? A film, a cartoon or a set of posters allowed by US courts in the name of Free Speech…are they protesting the burning of Korans, the prohibitions of Minarets and veils..what are they saying ? what are they articulating through their “Muslim Rage” (to borrow Newsweek title).

We are innocent – the white man in total outrage exclaims - wagging his finger against the violence of Savages. We had nothing to do with the film.  You don’t understand, because you are savages, but we live in Freedom…why can’t you learn from us. Hell we have been trying to teach you, since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. We the Brits, we the French, we the Germans, we the Dutch, we the Italians, we …we…Did we not colonize you to civilize you ? Did we not spend time and effort to teach you the glory of our race, of our concepts, of our lifestyle, of our way of being…Hell we did…Hell we sure did.

And look at you, just look at you – devoid of “Reason and Responsibility”  (another title from the Guardian), enraged like rabid dogs, rioting, burning flags, tires, and getting killed like Savages.

Here, have a drone, here another one…

Did you not learn your lesson in Iraq? Here take a B.52, a good dose of Depleted Uranium, cluster bombs and some White phosphorus as white as us…

Still not learning are you? Here have Guantanamo, here take Abu Ghraib, there you go, Bagram is waiting for you…we get to keep your body parts as trophies, though…after we sodomize the God, your Allah out of you. Hell…we try so hard with these savages…

You don’t understand said one of the film backers --- this is to weed out all the Binladens out there.  BinLaden is dead,  what are we going to replace him with ? How about Jihadist /Salafist ? Sounds exotic in a nasty kind of way…perfect term -- foreign and nasty --even more potent than the sound of Al Qaeda – because Jihadists/Salafists are everywhere…no longer hidden in the caves of Tora Bora but everywhere even on New York Subway Stations.

Remember it was the Islamists before, they were called insurgents, militants, terrorists…now that we have seriously warmed up to them in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Iraq (of the Shiite type) and hopefully soon in Syria (a protest about to be hijacked) now that we “contained” the Islamists and their “intellectuals” (will not name names, you know who you are), we still need to weed out ….weed out the “violent “ elements… yes those savages Jihadists/Salafist.

We need a peaceful Muslim…here, have another drone.

Anyone who stands against us is a Salafist/Jihadist/ Savage. Soon we will go to the root of the problem….the Mother of all Salafist of all Jihadists ---- that country, we know who you are.

Islamists now cracking down on Salafists/Jihadists…yes they are literalists and myopic but so were you before you were "contained" by the White man.

 But all those who took out to the streets were not literalist myopic extremist savages, they are simply FED UP with you White Man. And anyone who is fed up with you is considered to be against you.

Violence is ugly…am well placed to know. I witnessed the violence of the White Man in Iraq. It is a savage violence…

Yes, violence is heinous, drones who killed this little boy’s entire family, knows how heinous it...

Yes violence is ugly…hideous… Afghan women are well placed to know when a strike killed 8 of them while they were gathering wood just 48 hours after your Ambassador and his aides died… and the reaction on Twitter was indifferent, at best lukewarm. Who gives a damn - more Afghan women and girls getting killed --- surely not the global feminist movement who is now urging us to protest naked, nor our house Muslims with their veils and nasal twangs.

Yes violence…a horrible thing…a terrible thing…a savage thing...

Yes violence…I know it…I wake up drenched in sweat, this morning was no exception…I saw myself in Baghdad, terrorized Baghdad in tatters….scared, scarred, pleading with the sacred, running like a fugitive, like a savage…crossing a street not knowing when an explosion will take me…I stumble in my savage race for life…and fall…on a colony of black dead roaches, lying on their backs.

An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...

Who am I ? The eternal Question . Have not figured it out fully yet. All you need to know about me is that I am a Middle Easterner, an Arab Woman - in my 40's and old enough to know better. I have no homeland per se...All the rest is icing on the cake. arabwomanblues.blogspot.com