Author's Note: In light of new information on the possible director of the film in question, I have made a couple of changes to the blog entry.

Eleven years ago yesterday, I woke from my bed, stumbled into the living room and turned on the television to see the World Trade Center on fire. My heart sank into my stomach, and as I saw the events of 9/11 unfold I said a silent prayer for peace and understanding. Granted it was only one of the emotions going through my mind at the time, but my overriding hope was that my fellow Americans would not succumb to hatred.

By and large, the people around me kept calm. Granted, there was considerable anger at Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban, but immediate condemnation of Islam was practically non-existent in my circle. Gradually, though, some people around me began to make straw men out of a religion and suggested harsh punishments for people who had no ties to the attacks aside from religious affiliation.

This morning, I woke up, looked at my smartphone and saw the news that there had been riots in Egypt and Libya. The riots had resulted in many deaths, including the US ambassador to Libya and several aides. Reaction to this incident in the US was swift. Blogs, pundits, and Facebook posters took a united stand and heaped their scorn upon the obvious target... President Obama.

How did the President get tangled in this? Good question. It came about because the US embassy in Cairo issued a statement condemning the violence. The statement ended with the following:



It sounds like something most every American could get behind, right? Wrong. Conservative websites, including Breitbart and the Daily Caller, twisted the statement to accuse the President of apologizing to Muslims. Facebook posters lit up with angry condemnations of President Obama's "weak handling" of the crisis. Mitt Romney jumped on the dog-pile and made a statement for himself. After expressing sympathy for the Americans killed in the riots, Romney criticized the President saying:



Looking back at the original statement, there was nothing in the way of an apology. The relevant passage (posted above) touted Americans' tolerance for other religious beliefs and criticized the use of freedom of speech to incite violence.

But what was the impetus for the violence and subsequent critiques? Turns out it is a film released earlier this year, Innocence of Muslims, the trailer for which is posted on YouTube. The film was allegedly released by a man named Sam Bacile, who has no previous film credits but directed and wrote this film knowing that it would cause an uproar in the Islamic world. NOTE: Since the original post, information has come to light showing "Sam Bacile" is a pseudonym (see comments) I watched parts of the trailer this morning (YouTube has apparently pulled the original trailer), and to call it amateurish would be an insult to amateurs.

Religiously based media incensing religious groups is not new. The Last Temptation of Christ, Corpus Christi, Piss Christ, The Satanic Verses, Mohammad, Messenger of God, South Park - all of these works have inspired outrage and condemnation at various times over the years. However, it should be noted that there were legitimate arguements of artistic merit or social commentary that could be made for each of these.

No such arguement can be made for Innocence of Muslims. It was created in hatred to spread hatred. It is interesting to note that one of "Bacile's" collaborators warned him that the film could turn him into "the next Theo van Gogh". van Gogh was assassinated in 2004 after releasing a film criticizing Muslims for what he saw as their cultural mistreatment of women. It could be argued that Submission had some cultural value despite the views of its director. No such arguement can be made for Innocence of Muslims. It is not art, critique or information; it is pure and simple racist propaganda, as horrible as Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

So now we have a situation in which a Jewish fundamentalist has created a film specifically designed to inflame Islamic fundamentalists who have reacted by killing in protest, prompting the wrath and outrage of Christian fundamentalists. In a way, it seems far too convenient for this to not be planned somehow. The fact that Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who threatened to burn Korans last year on the anniversary of 9/11, has praised the film and plans to show the full trailer to his congregation, says a great deal about this crisis.

To the fundamentalists of all persuasions who have seen this as an opportunity to attack others based on their religions, I leave you with the (paraphrased) dying words of Mercutio, who was killed by Tybalt in an argument over Romeo's love for Juliet: