This week Russia’s Prosecutor’s Office made official its decision to ban the “Innocence of Muslims”, the anti-Islamic film that has caused a wave of outrage across the world.
Reaction to the film sparked a slew of anti-American riots in the Middle East as well as anti-Western protests in Europe. The Russian news agency Interfax quoted the Prosecutor General Office’s spokesperson Maria Gridneva saying, "the Russian Prosecutor General Office will appeal to the Court for this film to be classified as extremist in order to prevent its on-line distribution in Russia."
YouTube, too, might be at risk of being banned because of the film. Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov warned on his Twitter account that Russia may block access to YouTube if the ban is passed, and if YouTube refuses to block the video in Russia. So far, Google, which owns YouTube, has denied similar requests from the US government to remove the video saying that it does not violate the web-site’s terms of use. But the decision to ban the film may be a prudent one for Russia in light of a wave of reaction against it.
Violent protests against the film broke out on September 11 in Egypt and Libya and spread to Yemen and other Arab and Muslim nations over the following days, and resulted in an attack on September 11 on the US Consulate in Benghazi, leaving US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.
While details of the scandalous film are still emerging, Russians I spoke to have mixed feelings about it and the possible consequences for Russia:
- It’s safer to ban the movie and keep Russia out of any trouble. We don’t want any problems because of this.
- Maybe it’s better to ban it because Muslims can get offended very easily, and Russia has lots of Muslims. I don’t want to feel some fear that there could be some terror attack, or something because of a stupid Internet movie.
- I really think it’s better to have freedom of speech, so why should some movie stop that. Russians didn’t make that film, so we shouldn’t be punished.
- All of us know that Muslims really take these things very seriously.
- Movie shouldn’t be banned because it hurts freedom of speech and it stops people’s access to the information they really need, so people should have access to any information they think they need to have.
- Innocent Russian Muslims will not react that violent the way it happened in the Middle East, but I think it could worsen the situation.
In the words of Maria Gridneva, one of Russia’s main reasons for holding an inquiry into the film is because it has insulted religious feelings of believers and on-line distribution could incite further inter-ethnic feuds.
Once the ban is made legal any Internet provider showing or distributing it here could get into hot water including YouTube.
Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Victor Grin has so far warned a number of Russian leading Internet providers about respecting the law regarding the on-line distribution of the film. The same instructions were also passed on to prosecutors in Russian regions, too. With Muslim minority’s making up around a seventh of Russia’s population, it comes as no surprise that the Russian government would be eager to keep at distance from a film like “Innocence of Muslims”, something that would almost certainly strain tensions even further and threaten stability at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment