For this week's personal blog post, I'd like you to consider at least two of the "actors" in the Libyan tragedy at the U.S. consulate/release of The Innocence of Muslims. Take these two actors and use the Believing Game to write about what they did, why, and how it reflects their wider goals/purposes/worldviews. Below are some possible actors, although you could also write about someone else you feel is relevant. This story has been evolving over the last several days and I encourage you to spend a few minutes reading online to make sure you're up to date before you write. It could be that new actors will enter this story by the time you write your post, but a few starting points are listed below.
A couple of important details since we discussed this situation in class, as this story is rather confusing: First, "Sam Bacile"isn't a real person. He isn't Israeli or Jewish but instead seems to be a Coptic Christian. The tweets came from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, but the deaths were at the U.S. Consulate in Libya. The tweets were before the deaths that occurred in Libya.
"Actors"
"Sam Bacile", "filmmaker" who released the video
Terry Jones, who showed the film to his church in Florida
Employee in Cairo Embassy who posted the tweets
Mitt Romney
Barack Obama
http://lorielectionrhetorics.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThe tragedy of the U.S. ambassadors death over the release of the "The Innocence of Muslims" has caused a big issue since it has happened. The video was to mock the Islamic religion and the way they live. The Islams are obviously outraged by the video and have acted out to show there position in on the film. To destroy a life as an act to prove there point has shown that they are outraged. whether or not there this film was suppose to create such a catastrophic event, it did and now we have to deal with the consequences.
ReplyDeleteThe filmmaker Sam Bacile was trying to put a bad image on the Islams. He got his point across in the video, creating a parody of the Islamic religion. We have seen the consequences and I do not believe it was worth it. The freedom of speech is found within our government, but sometimes you need to know when to stop. The believing game in this situation can help people think deeper about this situation. By looking at this event from an others shoe's may help you think differently on the outcomes. Not to say that It was ok to kill the Ambassador in anyway, the Islam's take there religion very seriously so to put something out there that we know would cause problems may not have been the most brilliant idea. Bacile may have been trying to express his views on the Islamic culture and show people how he thinks people should feel about the Islams, but look at the consequences. especially since we have seen the Islamic culture get angry over media before.
In the past I have seen issues like this, but they have never escalated as far as the death of the ambassador. The television show "South Park" had gotten an entire episode censored on Comedy Central because they were trying to create a spoof on Muhammad. Seeing this also tells us that people understand that standing in the Islams shoes they do not accept the humor as us Americans may. where we find it somewhat harmless but humorous, they do not. They are from a different culture and may not get the portrayed humor inside the videos, instead they find it provocative cause incidents that could have been prevented.
Terry Jones an Anti-Islamic Minister from Florida showed his church this video. This creates a bigger problem from the video just being out there, to it being shown in an actual practice. He said he did not think that his showing had any resemblance to the death of the ambassador, but I feel it did. The more people that saw the video, the more likely for it to be blown into a bigger problem. If it did not disturb anyone by showing the film in his church, we would not know of it and I would not be writing about it now either.
Over all we need to understand that not every body reacts the same way you necessarily would to your own acts and words. This is shown obviously through the acts of the Islams. The issue is bad enough and I hope to see no forward acts that cause bigger issues for the U.S. or Islams