Trouble Continues over Video
Several intentional and inadvertent actions in the last few years performed by Americans who speak nothing for the sympathies of the majority of our nation, have inflicted severe insult to the Islamic faith that we unfortunately are witnessing today. The most obvious is the recent dissemination of the anti-Muslim video titled the "Innocence of Muslims" created by a shady, past criminal sentenced for a check fraud scheme in 2010 and member of a radical Christian conservative coalition.
The movie's trailer portrayed an unrealistic image of the prophet Mohammad, depicted as a philandering self emollient, womanizing leader who garnered little respect within seventh century Palestine. Truth be had, the prophet was nothing of the sort and practiced celibacy during most of his life until marrying at the age of forty to a widowed woman several years his elder. The eruption of violence in response to this tasteless, unfactual video has been severe, initially claiming the death of the four American workers at the United States Embassy in Libya and many more during the recent chaos.
A dozen other countries have been enmeshed in episodes of violence since then. The worst have included a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday killing fourteen and today's violence in Pakistan that led to the death of nineteen in violent protests from gunshots. Afghanistan has since been able to cull much of the violence through cleric's advocating peace during mosque services. The tendency for Arab citizens to react aggressively to such seldom occurrences of religious insult perpetrated by moronic provocateurs is catastrophically profound and unfortunately has occurred on several occasions since the United States engaged in Middle Eastern occupation.
Little to no attention was paid to the low budget movie here in the United States. It was purportedly produced under false pretenses by the film's creator, whose thin cast of actors were led to believe the plot was unrelated to any religious context and the narration was only added later as voice over at which point the anti-Islamic message that the writer intended was conveyed. In addition to such scrupulous techniques, it's quality was very low rate. According to some local Los Angeles residents near where a screening was supposed to be held on Sunset Blvd, no one arrived for the viewing and little was heard of it's production until an Arab news outlet discovered the trailer on YouTube and released the story in Egypt, sparking the unrest.
Such insensitivities lack regard for fundamental beliefs of many Middle Easterners. These people have been exposed to much tumult and conflict particularly in the past two years during the Arab uprisings and any unconstructive provocation form outsiders can be enourmoursly disruptive. For the most part, consideration for the practices that those local people hold in highest regard have been upheld due in part to the American military strategy of civilian embrace rather than aggression. But this recent toll of innocent deaths is tragic especially considering the compassion and affinity held by ambassador Chris Stephens to the Arab people.
Its sure to remain a difficult road ahead for the transitional advancement of local liberals in the Arab community who yearn to escape the extremist influence of radical Islamic forces like those that led the attack on several embassies. It's shown to be a dichotomous situation for countries that are on one side ambitiously determined to live fuller, prosperous lives against the obstructionist radicals that seek any excuse to provoke additional turmoil.