A European take on the movie that incensed Muslims

Some say they have never seen Muslims blaspheming against other faiths.

ROME/ GENEVA:

While the anti-Islam film, “Innocence of Muslims” has whipped widespread anger in the Muslim world, Europeans have had mixed feelings towards it.

Some of them see no reason to agitate, but others condemn it as contrary to basic human values. Interestingly, those living in the countryside are clueless about the sacrilegious movie and the uproar it has caused.

“We do not appreciate any religion being treated in a negative way. People should not be allowed to mock any religion. We have to respect all religions and live in harmony,” Alberto, a social activist in Geneva, told The Express Tribune.

Among a crowd of tourists along a picturesque lake in Geneva, Switzerland, some said they had never seen or heard of Muslims committing such blasphemies against other faiths.

“We have never seen Muslims blaspheming against Jesus Christ or any other religious figure. Though we have heard a lot about some extremist groups in Muslim countries, but at least, they too have never mocked other faiths,” Mitzi, a tourist from Brazil, told The Express Tribune.

“Freedom of speech does not mean humiliating others and hurting their feelings. The UN should chalk out clear-cut policies to stop such hate mongering. All civilised people, in my opinion, condemn this act of profanity not only against Islam but against all religions,” Mitzi said.

Angela Stiena, a rights campaigner in Rome, Italy, believes Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, producer of the hate film, had some ulterior motive. “It (the film) might be planned to destabilise the Muslim world and I believe that some secret objectives were to be achieved by this act of profanity,” she told The Express Tribune.

However, a majority of countryside Europeans are unaware of the movie and the furore it has generated.

“I don’t know and even no one here in our area knows about such a movie,” said Antonello Pescosolido, a tourism guide in Teramo, Italy.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2012.