The Man Who Never Was occupied centre stage in Operation Mincemeat, which was the most famous covert operation of World War II. In 1943, the Allies planned to invade Sicily from North Africa, across the Mediterranean. The Axis could deduce from the troop build-up that an attack was coming but not where it would be targeted.
British Intelligence found a corpse with water in the lungs, and created the identity of a non-existent Captain Martin of the Royal Marine Commandos, complete with fiancée, parents, etc. The body of “Captain Martin” was dumped just off the Spanish coast along with debris suggesting he had drowned after a plane crash at sea. Attached to the body by a chain was a briefcase containing documents that revealed plans to attack Greece and Sardinia.
Spain was neutral, but General Franco’s regime was sympathetic to the Germans, who were promptly given access to the papers after the body washed up on a Spanish beach. The Germans swallowed Mincemeat whole and moved a large number of troops out of Sicily to defend Greece and Sardinia and that ensured the success of the Sicily invasion, Operation Torch.
Somewhat more recently, a man who never was made a movie that might not exist. That sparked off global riots that threaten to escalate into a global cultural war. The 80-member cast and crew of The Innocence of Muslims thought they were filming a historical adventure called “Desert Warriors”. They have collectively and individually disavowed their involvement.
The soundtrack was over-dubbed to introduce derogatory references to Islam and its prophet. The scriptwriter-producer used the pseudonym “Sam Bacile” and claimed to be an American-Israeli real estate developer. He is probably one Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a Copt of Egyptian descent with an impressive track record of fraud and multiple aliases.
Very few people claim to have seen the entire movie. There are doubts if a full-length video actually exists. But enough in the way of 14-minute-long sections have been released as “trailers” on the Internet to ensure that Muslims have been outraged.
Like Operation Mincemeat, “Operation Innocence” was put together covertly for very specific purposes. Like Operation Mincemeat, it has been spectacularly successful and thereby made its point. The contents of Captain Martin’s briefcase were calculated to provoke the German High Command into transferring troops out of a critical battle zone. The content of the movie was calculated to first provoke a violent reaction from Muslims, and second, to give every Islamophobe on the planet a chance to table-thump and say “I told you so!”
Unquestionably, the movie is deeply offensive, and by design. But the reaction has been so disproportionate that there is no way to claim moral equivalence. Every person has a right to hold any religious beliefs that he or she chooses. Every person has a right to be offended if their beliefs are challenged and in a deliberately offensive manner at that. But being offended doesn’t confer the right to randomly destroy property and to kill innocent people who had, in no way, caused the said offence.
Sadly, there were few calls for a dignified response from within the ummah and those were drowned out by the extremists who took to the streets. This lack of restraint is what the moviemaker was banking on. It is what Islamophobes will continue to exploit, with follow-ups such as the cartoons in the French satirical rag, Charlie Hebdo.
There is another point one has to make — or rather, it is an extension of the principle mentioned above. Just as everybody has a right to hold any religious beliefs they choose, everybody has the right to challenge any religious belief they choose. The faith of devout Muslims was unshaken by a dreadful movie. The faith of believers in free speech is equally unlikely to be shaken by the mindlessly violent response it provoked.
