Anti-American Unrest Endangers Middle East Stability

Anti-American unrest has spread throughout countries in the Middle East and Asia in response to a film that insults Muhammad, the Islamic prophet.

The U.S. Embassy located in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi was attacked and four U.S. Foreign Service Officers were killed.

It greatly appears that terrorists are taking advantage of the anti-American unrest to carry out acts of terror.

Embassies in Sudan and Tunisia have been attacked, and some demonstrators in Cairo, Egypt’s capital city, trespassed onto embassy grounds. In Yemen, casualties have been reported in the conflicts with police forces.

This wave of anti-American unrest has spread to Islamic Asian countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

A trailer for the offending movie, which was made in the U.S., was distributed on the Internet. It is unclear who the author of the work is and what his intentions were, but it has stirred up religious confrontations. It is understandable why Muslims feel offended.

Nonetheless, it is never acceptable to give in to hatred and violently lash out, no matter what the cause is.

President Obama declared, “We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.” He also strongly criticized the attacks saying, “There is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence.”

We hope that the current situation will settle down as soon as possible.

The fear is that anti-American feeling will not just be limited to extremist groups but will spread to all people in the Middle East.

At the base of these problems is dissatisfaction and a lack of trust with U.S. Middle Eastern policies.

After his inauguration, President Obama set out to improve the relationships with Muslims throughout the world, which had deteriorated during the Iraq War. He took a clear stand for supporting the reformers who opposed state power in the “Arab Spring.”

In spite of this, the spread of anti-American unrest, which has used the movie as an excuse, since it had no connection to the U.S. government, speaks of deep-rooted anti-American feelings and religious problems. One could say that the Obama Administration’s Middle East policies are not working.

The democratization of Egypt and other countries is still incomplete, even though their dictatorships were toppled in the “Arab Spring.” For that reason, the influence that the anti-American unrest is having on their developing governments is frightening.

If there is chaos in the Middle East, it could sweep over the entire world.

As much as the U.S. advocates that it is a “Pacific Ocean country,” and that it will “focus on Asia,” there will definitely be strains on Japan’s national security if it becomes necessary to send considerable military forces to the Middle East.

Official Development Assistance, which supports economic development of countries in the Middle East, and promotes political stability, is important for Japan, which depends on the Middle East for a little over 80 percent of its crude oil imports.