YOU CAN RATIONALIZE ANYTHING

I sit in amazement at all the comments I am hearing from American news people that the anti-Muhammad trailer (The Innocence of Muslims) release has nothing to do with the riots in the Muslim world.  Few in this country except for some American Muslims understand the global Muslim mind.  There are comments about everyone knows about our free speech in the trailer about millions of people who have never had free speech.  Others comment that everyone knows that the anti-Muhammad trailer is not a U.S. government statement.  No, they don't because nothing was ever published in their country that wasn't the official government.

It well may be that there was an attack planned on the Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 because of the armaments in the attackers' hands, but surely the anti-Muhammad trailer added intensity to it.  Of course, the anti-Muhammad movie trailer was slow to spread and got its big boost by the Imams who fanned the flames in the Friday Muslim prayers (September 14th).  After that, the demonstrations spread quickly throughout the Muslim world and were peaceful by and large.  I feel that peaceful demonstrations were quite in order.  After all, what would we do in this country if there was an equivalent movie trailer denigrating Christ?  In this case, I can easily picture some Americans seeking out American Muslims to attack.

Has everyone forgotten Salman Rushdie who received fatwa (death sentence) from Ayatollah Khomeini for publication of his 1988 book Satanic Verses because of irreverent depictions of Muhammad?  At the time there were book burnings of his book.  I have heard that the bounty on his head has recently even been increased. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie)

Has everyone forgot the furor over the burning of Korans in Afghanistan by our military last February in which four Americans lost their lives in addition to about 40 others?(http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afghans-protest-improper-disposal-of-koran-at-us-base/2012/02/21/gIQAjhBqQR_story.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/world/asia/video-said-to-show-marines-urinating-on-taliban-corpses.html)

It is interesting to note that American Muslims have not demonstrated against insults to Islam by the movie trailer, so far as I know.  I suspect they are living in fear of reprisals as it is.  For one tape of Islamophobia, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NutFkykjmbM

Note added September 18, 2012: A very good discussion of the effect of insults to Islam is given by Stanley Fish (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/libya-violence-and-free-speech/?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20120918).  A brief excerpt:
And since for them religion is not an internal, privatized matter safe from the world’s surfaces, but an overriding imperative that the world’s surfaces should reflect, a verbal or pictorial assault on their religion will not be received as an external and ephemeral annoyance, as a “mere” representation; it will be received as a wounding to the heart, as a blow, and as a blow that is properly met by blows in return. No “sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me” for them.

Note added September 25, 2012:  Libyans reacted to armed militia's on September 21st over their attack on the U.S. Consulate and demand their dissolution: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Libyans-protest-defiant-militias-3884916.php.  We should remember that the hot-heads are usually a small minority of a country even if they number in the thousands.