Are All Those Middle East Protests Just Over A Movie?

"This is a fairly volatile situation, and it is in response not to U.S. policy, not to, obviously, the administration, not to the American people. It is in response to a video--a film--that we have judged to be reprehensive and disgusting. That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it. But this is not a case of protests directed at the United States, writ large, or at U.S. policy. This is in response to a video that is offensive and--to Muslims."
Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary

Of course, the Obama administration would have us think that the growing number of riots and protests throughout the Muslim world have nothing to do with Obama's Middle East policy.

After all, back in 2007, Obama made clear that he was uniquely qualified to make the US respected in the Muslim world:




So the question is, if Obama was right in 2007 that his background and experiences enable him to improve the image of the US in the Middle East -- and if Carney is right that the riots have nothing to do with US policy and are only because of a 14 minute video of a movie that has yet to actually be uncovered -- then why are the protests so violent and so widespread that The Atlantic has put together A Map of Muslim Protests Around the World:

If you can't keep track of all the Muslim protests erupting across the globe, you're not alone. The uproar over a 14-minute anti-Islam YouTube video has sparked furious protests from Somalia to Egypt to Sudan to Tunisia to Libya to Bangladesh to Indonesia to Pakistan. With new reports of protests surfacing every minute, we've compiled the latest reported incidents into this handy interactive Google Map. Click the locations and embedded links for more details about each incident.

View Muslim Protests by John Hudson in a larger map

Could one movie really undo all the work Obama has done during his term to improve the US image in the Middle East?

In fact, there are indications that the embassy attacks have been in reaction to policy decisions -- and that the attacks were not spontaneous reactions to 14 minute clip of a movie:

• On August 30, a protest was announced for the release of Sheikh Omar abdel Rahman, the terrorist behing the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center 
• On September 8 there were calls to burn the US embassy in Cairo over the imprisonment of Sheikh Mujahid Omar Abdel Rahman (Arabic).
  
• Mohamed al-Zawahiri, brother of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, was calling for protests already on September 10.
  
• A motive for the attack on the embassy could be the recent assassination of the number 2 man in Al Qaeda in Yemen, Said al-Shihri

That is not to say that Rahman should be released or that the assassination of the Al Qaeda terrorist should not have happened, but at least let's be clear about what is going on here and why.

But just in case the movie is the real reason for the original attack on the US embassies in Cairo and Benghazi, perhaps the Obama administration will take the advice of Breitbart that the White House Must Stop Sony From Releasing "Killing Bin Laden' Film -- true the movie would help Obama's image, but cancelling the movie in order to prevent further Muslim violence would be a small price to pay, no?

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