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The All-Ukrainian Association of Public Organizations (AAPO) “Alraid” joins the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine (RAMU) “Ummah” and condemns producers of the film “Innocence of Muslims” as well as bursts of violence against innocent people, following its presentation, massacres and escalations of ethnical clash.

 

Persons who made this mean and false film, offended Prophet Muhammad in it and hurt religious feelings of Muslims have not been identified by far. This clear provocation was intentionally timed to the tragic data, September 11, and aimed to show Muslims in an extremely unfavorable light. Unfortunately, thousands of Muslims across the world have responded on it exactly in a way desired by the provokers. 

The film was translated into Arabic and displayed in Internet. As should be expected, indignation and rage spread across the whole Middle East, first and foremost on Egypt, Libya and Yemen, followed by Tunisia and Sudan. Calls to rallies were made in front of U.S. embassies in these countries, and there were many who responded. The overwhelming majority of demonstrators wanted to voice their indignation in a peaceful way, but part of them had radical sentiments. As a result, meetings turned into violence: embassy buildings were seized, flags and cars burnt, four foreign diplomats killed, including the U.S. ambassador in Libya.

As Muslims, we cannot approve actions like this. First and foremost, the principle of personal responsibility is a most important one in Islam. The U.S. ambassador cannot be killed only due to militant ignorance of his compatriots. 

Also, it is the response expected by the film producers, as they did their best to hurt religious feelings of Muslims; in doing this, they expected the response that would show that Islam was a supposedly barbaric religion encouraging violence. 

Those who yield to the provocation excuse their actions by the desire to protect the Prophet’s honor. In addition to violent actions, social on-line networks have been disseminating calls to boycott YouTube resource, due to unwillingness of its administration to remove the film.

However, the honor of the Prophet (may be peace and blessing upon him) should not be protected as an excuse of one’s violent actions and during a couple of days in a year though boycotting the popular video resource, in order to forget this soon after and turn to routine life. We have been watching this when looking at people announcing strikes, crying louder than others and trying to destroy whatever possible. In a couple of days they would forget about the need “to protect the Prophet’s honor” till the next provocation; yet, the global community is unlikely to forget their response that is alien to both Islamic values and civil society values, which strengthens the stereotype “Muslims are barbarians, murderers and terrorists”. Which legacy can such people leave for all of us, Muslims of the Earth? 

We must oppose the provocations in a way informed to us by our religion, through self-development, showing best qualities of a Muslim, offering a good example to follow. We should be ready to face real challenges rather than attack unprotected people.

One should not forget about the power of supplication, as it will bring enemies of Islam much more severe defeat that boycotting YouTube resource, which, by the way, contains Islamic materials.

We call Muslims to abstain from watching this film, from supporting and approving the persons calling to violence, from joining furious debates, but to disseminate sound information about Prophet Muhammad and Islam, so that the global community could reject slanderous films like this about an outstanding and significant personality which Prophet Muhammad was and remains to be.

The Allah Most High tells the faithful in the Holy Koran: “Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good admonition” (Koran, 16:125). It is the motto of the AAPO “Alraid” and the RAMU “Ummah”, and it perfectly fit for this situation. We are calling all the Muslims to give a symmetric and civilized response on this provocation in form of books, booklets and films about Prophet Muhammad, about his excellent moral qualities, righteousness, justice and humanism.

We are calling each follower of Muhammad to demonstrate the true meaning of the message that was given to the Last Prophet.