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

That quote resonates well with the rationale behind the uprisings occurring around the globe due in part to the awful piece of film known as “Innocence of Muslims.”

The misguided teachings offered by religious leaders advocating Islamic Fundamentalism shaped the hostile thoughts that have led to violent actions; the pictures, or images, from the movie depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a highly offensive light have fueled the desires of those fanatical religious leaders to incite other zealots and even those who are only of the flock to further assault the “infidels.”

I cannot blame the protesting Muslims for being angry. They are well within the realm of logic to be angered, which seems to have been the purpose of the video in the first place.

But some of the actions stemming from the protesting are not acceptable.

The violence is simply unforgivable. The actions of a few Muslims are making the followers of Islam out to be the frightening group the events of 9/11 so created.

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 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 problem is further exasperated by the reactions of media and individuals across the Internet. The line between satire and attack is becoming very muddled.

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

Soon after, 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, famous for its satirical content aimed at everything under the sun, published a very X-rated picture poking fun of the controversial film and the situation called “No One Was Murdered Because Of This Image.” The picture appeared on Facebook briefly, amassing close to 100,000 likes before being taken down due to breaching Facebook’s sexually explicit content rules.

Are these really satire, or did the cartoons and the columns go too far with criticism and jokes 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 Hebdo not to print the cartoons also stood by the paper’s freedom of speech. But as a precaution, due to past events of unrest from anti-Islamic sentiment, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs upped security for diplomatic offices abroad.

One of the actresses from the film, Cindy Lee Garcia, filed a legal complaint Wednesday, Sept. 19, to the Superior Court of the State of California for the county of Los Angeles demanding the video be removed:

“The lawsuit is not an attack on the First Amendment (to the U.S. Constitution) nor on the right for Americans to say what they think but does request that the offending content be removed from the Internet.”

She claims invasion of privacy, misappropriation of likeness, fraud and unfair business practices due to “Innocence of Muslims.” 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, especially with matters of public concern. We don’t allow people with private interests to trump that. 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.

So does that validate the existence of “Innocence of Muslims” or the repression of further criticism of Muhammad? Does the alleged manipulation make the work of filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula — also known as Sam Bacile — into harassment and slander, or further demonstrate how far we must tolerate extreme satire in order to preserve freedom of speech?

The fanatics advocating death to infidels will continue to advocate violence no matter what is done. They will use any and every tidbit of criticism toward their religion to try and succeed with their goals. Historically, every time any satirical commentary about Muhammad has appeared, they have advocated violence and rebellion.

With that in mind, what should be the reaction to the uprisings and calls for violence occurring across the globe due to 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 have patience. We must be cautious, and we must protect ourselves and those representing us. We must be mindful of our actions to not 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.