After watching the Twittersphere respond to last week’s Newsweek cover story, I created a Storify  of some of the funniest tweets and best content. Twitter jokes aside, I came across some creative and thought provoking pieces in response to “muslim rage”.  From creative video to personal essays,  I made a list of must reads:

I exported the Storify below, but you can find the original at Storify.com

Newsweek served up a hashtag to go right along with the cover story, hoping to provoke some discussion on Twitter.

The Twittersphere flipped the script, largely turning the “hashtag discussion” into parody, using comical situations to express “muslim rage”.

Here’s a look at some of the funniest tweets:

Gawker even compiled 13 powerful images of muslim rage, including a little girl in a bright pink bubble jacket angrily brandishing holding the Egyptian flag.

All jokes aside, the topic of “muslim rage”  brought some interesting and informative reads to the surface. From op-eds to personal essays, responses to the cover story prompted more than just parody and comic relief. They drew comparisons, examined issues, and provoked serious discussion. Here are 5 informative, interesting, and insightful pieces:

1. Who’s Afraid of Muslim Rage?  (Avaaz Magazine) 

Avaaz Magazine breaks down responses to the attacks in Benghazi into three parts:  7 points obscured in media coverage,  Salafist radicals who instigated violent reaction to the “The Innocence of Muslims” , and  pieces from journalists and scholars that take an in depth look at the intent and motives behind the protests.

2. Peace Be Upon You by William Saletan (Slate Magazine) 

Saletan’s op-ed encourages not only Muslims, but also Christians and Jews, to ignore those who mock and poke fun at their religion.

“Derision is that much harder to control. The spread of digital technology and Internet bandwidth makes it possible to reach every corner of the globe almost instantly with homemade video defaming any faith tradition. It can become an incendiary weapon. But it has a weakness: It depends on you. You’re the detonator. If you don’t cooperate, the bomb doesn’t explode.”

3.  Are Muslims Nuts? by Haroon Moghul (Religion Dispatches):

In this essay, Moghul talks about how the Western world is portrayed in Middle Eastern society and how that perception triggers   angry responses from a small minority of extremists. 

4. Days of Rage by Steve Coll (The New Yorker)
This op-ed discusses factors in the last two centuries that have contributed to conflict between the Western and Islamic world, including the 1990 publication of Roots of Muslim Rage. “In “The Roots of Muslim Rage,” an essay published in 1990, the historian Bernard Lewis describes a “surge of hatred” rising from the Islamic world that “becomes a rejection of Western civilization as such.” The thesis became influential. It posited a crisis within a global Islamic community that made conflict with the United States and Europe inevitable.”

5. Project Clean For Peace. #MuslimLove

 A short video by Syed Muzamil Hasan Zaidi showing more than 1,000 Pakistani people gathering together to clean up a mess created by “the few individuals who somehow always end up defining Pakistan.”

What are the best responses you’ve seen/ read about “muslim rage”? Tweet me @ShaunaReporter.