“My thought has been shaped by books; my desires by pictures.” — Mason Cooley

That quote resonates well with the current Islamic protests:

The misguided teachings offered by some advocating Islamic Fundamentalism shaped the hostile thoughts that have led to the violent actions; the pictures from “Innocence of Muslims” have fueled the desires of those fanatical religious leaders to incite other zealots and even those that are only of the flock to further assault the “infidels.”

I cannot blame those Muslims protesting for being angry. They are well within the realm of logic to be angered, but some the actions stemming from the protesting are not acceptable.

The horrid religious indoctrination by those fanatical leaders is brainwashing children. An 8-year-old child named Ruqaya was being used in Sydney, Australia, to rev up the crowd. She offered her love of jihad and encouraged Muslims young and old to fight for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate, according to an article in The Australian.

Despite that, we must keep in mind the religion is not to blame for the riots or the violence, nor are the majority of Muslims. Those to blame are the same people that are encouraging the killing of infidels no matter what occurs. Those people do not believe in freedom of speech or freedom to choose.

The satirical French weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo unleashed a series of cartoons Wednesday portraying Mohammed naked.

Soon after, Charlie Hebdo’s website was hacked and shut down by a group called Syrian Association For Freedom, according to a report by Agence France-Presse on minnpost.com.

The Onion published a very X-rated picture poking fun of the controversial film and the situation called, “No One Was Murdered Because Of This Image.”

Are these really satire, or did the cartoons and the columns go too far with criticism or a joke and cross over into taunting and harassment?

In the United States, it is no question the material presented should not be taken down or stopped, because it is an exercise in free speech. The French government, though it pleaded with Charlie Hebdo not to print the cartoons, also stood by the paper’s freedom of speech. 

One of the actresses from the film, Cindy Lee Garcia, filed a legal complaint Wednesday to the Superior Court of the State of California for the county of Los Angeles to have the movie removed from YouTube.

Garcia alleges she was cast in an adventure movie about Egyptians titled “Desert Warrior,” and that soundtrack was altered to create the anti-Islam messages.

She has since “received death threats, was fired from her job, and was not permitted by her family to see her grandchildren, fearing for their safety,” according to a news article in ComputerWorld. 

Timothy Alger, lawyer for YouTube’s owners, Google, said to the court Thursday, “Our laws encourage free speech … No matter how we view the content, whether it’s reprehensible or mocking, the fact is, it’s a subject of wide debate on a topic of interest for people around the world.”

The judge dismissed Garcia’s privacy complaint, and ruled the video did not need to be removed. But that ruling will not stop the upheaval being attributed to the movie. The threats against Garcia and all those not of the Islamic faith are going to continue. 

With that in mind, what should be the reaction to the uprisings and calls for violence occurring across the globe due to criticism of a religion?

Freedom of speech must be maintained, so we cannot quell the voices of the critics. U.S. military incursion has demonstrated over and over again to incite further violence when dealing with Islamic Fundamentalism, so that option is unappealing. The religion itself cannot be quashed, as no religion can be held “correct” over any other.

We must be mindful of our actions so as not to antagonize those seeking excuses for violence with overly inflammatory messages, nor should anyone antagonize Muslims not partaking in violence.

We must not react with violence or even in an agitated, aggressive manner, because to do so will only give more fuel to ignite the fires of those that seek to kill.

A picture, a word, a movie, a book, none of these things give reason to advocate actions that involve violence. We can only respond with caution and hope humanity’s desire to live as a global village wins out.