Atmosphere of the Bush Years

The usual collusion between the partisans of the “clash of civilizations” is once again producing devastating effects. We do not yet know the precise details of the link between the viral diffusion of a low-grade film promoting the basest kind of Islamaphobia and the wave of violent demonstrations held by some thousands of extremists throughout the world under the pretext of defending an insulted religion. However, it is all a bit too neat for chance to have played any part.

Following the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, attacks on embassies and other symbols of the Western world, as well as sometimes-lethal confrontations between protesters and police, have proved more than enough excuse for European and American media outlets to talk of “the Arab world up in arms.” It is tempting to suggest that it is the media itself that is up in arms. Insultingly, they refuse to draw a distinction between the vast majority of the Arab-Muslim world and a tiny minority of militants seizing this opportunity for their own ends, created by a single dubious California film-maker with the support of a book-burning pastor.

It is not hard to see who benefits from these crimes. In the USA, certain orphans of the Bush era may be tempted to recreate an atmosphere of intolerance and fear just two months before the ballot that will decide whether Barack Obama is re-elected or defeated. In Arab and predominantly Muslim countries, the most radical of Islamist forces — and especially the Salafists — are fanning the flames in order to increase their influence in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. This offensive is targeted much more at progressive and democratic forces and the wider citizenry than at European or American interests. In this context, Pope Benedict XVI’s calls to reject religious fundamentalism and to respect the right of the individual to his own beliefs and convictions, made during his trip to Lebanon, must have resounded particularly strongly in those other parts of the Middle East, such as Syria or Palestine, where populations of divergent faiths still live side by side.

In France, the right and the far right are themselves trying to profit from the abortive attempts made by several hundred people to attack the American Embassy in Paris on Saturday. Francois Fillon is presuming to lecture the government. Marine Le Pen is deliberately provoking the 100,000 Salafists who will soon be taking to the streets of Paris. When will we wake up from this nightmare of the Bush years?