It Will Go Beautifully

Without a doubt many Muslims were offended by the knowledge that somebody somewhere made a degrading movie about Islam and their Prophet Muhammad, and many of the protesters that have come out from all angles of the Islamic world to protest in front of Western embassies have done so motivated by a legitimate sense of insult to their most sacred icons.

It is also evident that there are groups with their own agenda, interested in igniting the religious passions to advance their interests. The ambassador of the United States was assassinated in Libya by a heavily armed terrorist group, not by outraged people.

In Islamic countries, especially those where the Arab Spring has generated a new and unstable political reality, religious passions can easily be manipulated by opportunists, groups opposed to the new governments, Salafist organizations, Islamic radicals, terrorists and others.

In Egypt, where the protests over the film have been stronger, brand-new President Morsi is caught between the extremists of his own party, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis and the need his government has of the United States’ support to overcome the severe economic crisis. Hence his contradictory statements on the events, trying to appease one and all.

In Lebanon, the official leader of the Shiite organization Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, the same one who supports the genocidal regimen of Assad in Syria unconditionally, came out of his lair to incite protests against the video.

Previously, in 2006, some cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper caused large and violent protests. The most notable thing from these episodes is the apparent ease with which the masses can be agitated in Muslim countries, which interested parties, whether it be Islamic radicals or extremist Christians, take note, so that at any moment, when their agenda requires it, they can create a video, cartoons, books or any other offensive expression and use it as a spark to ignite passions, get people out on the streets and line them up against any target, Western embassies, government offices or others.

Faced with provocations such as cartoons or the video in question, Western society and their governments face the dilemma of how far to defend the sacred freedom of expression. This doesn’t except them from responsibilities; the United States, led by its president, who has sided with new Arab democracies and is providing them a significant amount of economic support, appears vulnerable to recent events and requires an urgent diplomatic and political operation to avoid the damage getting worse, while the voices of the vast majority of moderate Muslims are silenced by radical factions.

The passionate protests against the video contrast with the passivity in much of the Islamic world against the genocide that the Syrian regime commits, supported by the Iranian theocracy, against their Muslim population.