Today, Imran Firasat, a Pakistani ex-Muslim living in Spain released his Youtube video, titled, The Innocent Prophet. The idea of making a movie came to him after the attacks in Benghazi where four Americans were butchered and the riots that ensued in many Islamic countries.

Imran wrote to me and asked for my support. I asked him about his intention. I told him if his intention is to spread the truth the story must be accurate and it should be presented in a tasteful way. If the idea is to insult Muhammad and incite Muslims, anything will do.

Not everything everyone does to fight Islam is helpful.  Take the example of Pastor Terry Jones’s infamous Quran burning incidence.  I applauded him when he announced he plans to burn the Quran and then said he won’t do it. I thought that was a brilliant stunt. He raised the awareness about the Muslims’ violence, but did not provoke them and no lives were lost. I was shocked when he went ahead and burned the damned book. That resulted in the death of at least 30 people, including seven UN workers, and injury to other 150 people.

What was the gain? Nothing!  Anyone can burn a book. That does not prove the book is evil. Who is responsible for those victims? Muslims committed those crimes, but are they responsible?  You can’t expect responsibility from savages. Everyone knows and agrees that the bar of humanity for Muslims is set very, very low. In fact Muslims riot and demand that it be set even lower.  They have shown, time and again, that they are irresponsible and rash. Whether Jones accepts responsibility or not it was his senseless act that brought the death of those people. We have to fight Islamic menace, but there is a right way and a wrong way.

Another example is the movie Innocence of Muslims made by the Coptic American Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. This movie was blamed by Obama for the terrorism in Benghazi.in order to cover up his behind-the-door arms deals with the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya. But once the apology was made, Muslims, all over the world went on riot to demand more concessions.  This is the typical behavior of Muslims. You want them to riot? Apologize to them for hurting their religious sensitivity, and millions of them will come to the streets, foaming in their mouths, shouting, burning and killing others. Obama, born a Muslim and still a Muslim knows about it just as much as I do. The riots led to hundreds of injuries and over 75 deaths. Again there was no gain in that movie.  It was full of inaccuracies and slanders and it did not change anyone’s view about Islam.

These two examples (and I am not going to include the insanity of Anders Behring Breivik among them) demonstrate that not every move will advance our cause. Anyone who knows about war strategies, or has played chess, knows foolish moves can make one lose. Let us give these people the benefit of doubt and assume they had good intentions. As the proverb goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Good intentions are not enough. One must also act with wisdom.

I asked Imran about his intentions. I asked whether he was banking on the hope that there will be riots so he can make a name for himself, or does he really want to spread the truth. Looks like Dr. Jones and Imran are hoping that their movie will have the same impact as the Innocence of Muslims, which means they look forward to much riots and mayhem for publicity. The truth is that the Innocence of Muslims had no impact at all. No one changed his mind about Islam due to it. We have obviously different understanding of what we mean by impact.  Is making Muslims go nuts, riot and kill people an impact? I believe impact is when we convince them that their faith is misplaced. This cannot be done by making baseless claims about their prophet.

I told Imran I doubt a riot will be in the cards.  As explained above, the riots in 9/11/2012 were not about Nakoula’s video but they were instigated by Obama. However, if his intention is genuine, a cheap movie will not help. He should either do it right or don’t do it.  A cheap movie will only muddy the waters and will make people lose interest when a real movie about Muhammad comes out.

Imran’s much promoted movie is finally out. However, despite all the hype it is not a movie, but a slide show. There are other slide shows about the life of Muhammad that are a lot more accurate and better done. Here is one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKvgTUOqKS8

And the best in my opinion is The Biography of the Prophet Illustrated by Abdullah Ibn Abi Sarh.  http://www.prophetmuhammadillustrated.com/

This is a masterpiece. It is full of beautiful drawings and is very much accurate. It is a joy to look at those drawings and you’ll learn about Muhammad.

Imran’s slide show is replete with inaccuracies and false claims. Apart from the fact that the pictures are unrelated to the story,  the story is his personal opinion, not supported by facts.  The arguments made against Muhammad in this video are straw man fallacies.  The fact that someone is an ex-Muslim does not make him an expert on Islam. Not even one in a thousand Muslims knows the Quran and far fewer have read the original biographies of their prophet.

Not only Imran’s facts are inaccurate, his interpretation of the life of Muhammad is also incorrect. He does not know the history of Muhammad and does not understand his motives. Muhammad was not a common criminal as Imran claims. He was not abused by his aunt. He did not leave the house of Abu Talib at the age of 20 to from a band of criminals. Where did he get all these and so many other details about the life of Muhammad that don’t exist in any book of history?  Imran does not have the needed understanding of the man he purports to describe and demystify. He claims his goal is to tell the truth, and expose the facts, but he hasn’t bothered to read the books of history to learn those facts.

Before its release a few news sites in Europe made too much ado over this video. If publicity was Imran’s goal, he has attained it. However, there is nothing in this video that deserves much attention. The fact that it is poorly done is forgivable but the fact that it is not truthful is not.

The video is 72 minutes long. Watch it if you suffer from insomnia. It may help. But don’t expect to learn anything from it nor be entertained.

I am not against making movies about Muhammad; I am working on one. I am against making up facts and assuming everyone is also ignorant of the history and will buy whatever you say as fact.  I have watched only half of the video so far. None of the things Imran says in this video is true.  This video is fiction. It has nothing to do with Muhammad.  It seems he does not care about facts. He is hoping for a Muslim backlash and the more outrageous his video, the more is likely that they will react.

I finally saw the entire video. I have not heard so much nonsense from anyone other than a Muslim. Imran made up the entire story of Muhammad. Sadly few people know that story and  I hear so many people praising him.

Spread The Word! Share it: