HERE'S an exercise in logic. Individuals claiming to speak on behalf of the almost one billion Muslims inhabiting this planet are upset because a new movie unfairly portrays followers of Islam as terrorists. So they call their local cinemas and issue bomb threats.
It's a fine example of Kanthan's axiom: Almost anything can be explained by stupidity. What better way to convince the world that you are not terrorists than to resort to an act of terror? It's a laughable situation, but few of us are laughing.
Whether or not The Siege, the new Bruce Willis and Denzil Washington blockbuster, stereotypes Muslims is not the issue because — by definition — the movie would have to portray all Muslims as having particular characteristics. The Siege — simply because it portrays Muslims on opposite sides of a conflict — fails the definition.
Neither is the issue to deny that elements of Western popular culture have been guilty of stereotyping. If protesters want a good example of a film which stereotypes Muslims, they need only look at True Lies, the Arnold Schwarzenneger and Jamie Lee Curtis smash hit from about four years ago which features a fanatical group of nuclear terrorists calling themselves the "Crimson Jihad" (how original!). They would also do well to look at the entire James Bond series which stereotypes everyone — including the English.
What is the issue is that for many people, the immediate mental picture associated with Islamic fundamentalism is one of terror. As I sit and write these words, I find myself pausing over every syllable on the off chance that some crazed lunatic will take offence and decide to nuke me and mine in the name of peace, love, and religious freedom.
This is not because Islam is in any way inherently violent. On the contrary, historians — Islamic or otherwise — concur that the society founded by the prophet in Medina established unprecedented levels of democracy and respect for human dignity, especially for women: The right to choose one's spouse; the ban on women's inclusion in a deceased man's inheritance; the ban on accusing women of improprieties without due process; the right to hold property independent of men, and recognition of contracts and business deals entered into by women independent of their husbands or male family members; the right to seek recourse against their husbands and male relatives; the right to travel and migrate; the right to inheritance; the right to a share of war booty; the right to guardianship of children; the ban on isolating women and various other arbitrary forms of divorce; the right to teach, learn, and advocate their views; the right to vote; freedom of expression; the right to take part in all social decisions; and finally, and most importantly, the right to leadership and directorship of the society.
Sounds unfamiliar? The fact is that Islam at its core has eminently sensible guidelines for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — which is perhaps why it has found a ready home among the ghettoes of the United States where it has been a blessing to African Americans wandering cultureless after generations of slavery.
This is not the face of Islam that is seen by the non-Islamic world. What we do see is the Taliban denying women education and employment. We see the Algerian terror squads with their portable guillotines mounted in the backs of trucks pulling supposed collaborators from their beds and decapitating them in front of their families.
Many evils have been perpetrated in the name of religion. Apartheid was a recent example for Christianity, but Christians were also at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid. But the majority of the almost one billion Muslims in the world remain silent on such issues involving Muslims because they are stuck in a vicious cycle. The world stereotypes them, so they appear to close ranks when attacked.
But the cycle has to be broken. Evil is being perpetrated in the name of Islam. And the overwhelming majority of those one billion Muslims — who share the same desire for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the rest of humankind — need to speak out.
When Muslims call for an end to sanctions against Iraq, I add my voice to theirs, because sanctions against Iraq have killed more than 800 000 innocents, most of them children. When Muslims call for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, I add my voice to theirs. When Muslims decry the bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan, I add my voice to theirs.
By the same token, Muslims need to speak out — loudly — against injustice perpetrated in the name of Islam, be it in Algeria, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, or Cape Town. Human rights issues are not more important when the victims are Muslim. Neither are they less important when the perpetrators are Muslim.
Islam has thrived for more than 1 500 years in spite of extremists, not because of them.