Culture of Violence

Recent events in Cairo, Benghazi, and Sana have brought the world's attention once again to the Middle East, and once again it unfortunately involves Muslims behaving badly.  This time it involves the senseless murder of four Americans at the US Consulate in Benghazi by an enraged mob, as well as attacks on other US embassies.

Here in Beirut there are already enough things going on that this hasn't caused much trouble.  The Pope is visiting tomorrow so security is extremely high, and most people are staying home to avoid the hassle.  We are being more careful about our travel for the time being.  It has been the subject of serious discussion with Muslim friends.

What enraged them?  A film.  They killed people because of a film.  Killing people because of a movie is wrong, there's simply no excuse for it. No matter what the insult, it is an evil response.  Choosing the date of 9/11 to do the killing was probably coincidental, but also an added level of stupidity.  The film was only posted to youtube in Arabic in the last few days.  That led to the timing.

As a Christian, how should I respond to this? At some level, there's a temptation to throw up our hands and quit.  Is there really any hope for a people who will murder because they are angry about a movie?  I believe that there is hope, and that hope lies in the words of Jesus.  His words have the power to change and mold a society.

In the US we would not respond to a book or film by killing someone.  Robert Maplethorpe submerged a Crucifix in his own urine and called it art, hoping to provoke a shock response while drawing attention  away from his lack of actual artistic talent.  How did Christians respond?  There were angry letters to the Editor, petitions, and demonstrations -all of which are appropriate responses.  There were no murders.  Our culture is arguably just as violent as Islamic culture, but in this case we have adopted the words of Jesus "Turn the other cheek."  We understand that the proper response to ridicule is -ridicule, debate, protest.

The answer to this culture of violence is more Jesus.  I'd like to ask how we as Christians are doing on that score.

Some people have asked about the film.  It was apparently the product of a Coptic (Egyptian) Christian (or several of them) bent on getting revenge for centuries of oppression at the hands of Egyptian Muslims.  Revenge has a funny way of not working out well, and now Egyptian Christians are suffering from the backlash of this film.  An idiot Pastor from Florida Pastor named Terry Jones, famous for burning the Quran, has promoted the film.  It turns out that they misled the actors, who had no idea they were making a hate film.  The insulting lines were dubbed in after the filming.

Terry Jones, exactly how does burning Qurans and promoting this hate film share the love and good news of Jesus Christ?  Do you not understand that you will be accountable before the throne of an angry God for the souls you have pushed away from the Gospel?  Are you so ready to sell your own soul for 15 minutes of fame?

I had the chance to speak with a Muslim friend, a Sheikh, about these events.  He asked me about my opinion of the film, and here was my answer:

Making this film was wrong.  If you wish to be friends with Muslims you cannot mock everything they value.

Killing people over a film is even more wrong.  If you don't like what the film says, then speak out against it.  Make your own film.  Don't kill people.