Were it not for YouTube, perhaps Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, would still be alive.
For as much as I've hailed the Internet as a powerful platform to connect like-minded individuals and groups in the Arab world fighting for their right to self-determination, today we are reminded of another powerful, if tragic reality.
Yesterday an amateur film uploaded to the Internet and deemed offensive to Islam's Prophet Muhammad connected extremist groups in the West with those in Egypt, Libya and across the Arab world.
Such is the world we live in, where an outlandishly offensive film attacking the Prophet Mohammed and Egyptian media's coverage of the 14-minute trailer for the video could prompt thousands to storm the US embassies in Benghazi and Cairo, leading ultimately to Stevens' death, which itself was documented online as images purportedly of Ambassador Stevens circulate on social networks as I write this.
Some of my smartest friends also took to Twitter on Tuesday to dismiss the protests at the U.S. embassy as largely insignificant -- that is, until the news broke of Stevens' death in Libya.
Obama may have killed Bin Laden, but like those men who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Cairo yesterday, pulling down the U.S. flag, and raising an Islamic flag, Obama has not killed anti-American sentiment in the region.
"Take a picture Obama, We are all Osama," they chanted at the US embassy.
These tragic events point to two things worth noting. First, the ongoing security vacuum that still threatens day to day life in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere in the region. But more importantly, the speed with which misguided and misinformed extremists voices in the US were able to use the Internet to mobilize extreme Muslims through an inflammatory video mocking Islam's prophet Mohammed.
To ignore the significance of the deep-seated resentment shared by Arabs and Muslims on the ground, even if they are a minority, when it comes to America's meddling in regional affairs would be a mistake.
But equally, holding an American Ambassador, a veteran of American diplomatic missions in Libya that was widely admired by the rebels that fought to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi is as misguided as the "insignificant" video itself, that all of a sudden is very very significant.
This is not the first time the walls of a U.S. embassy or consulate have been breached since the Arab uprisings. It sadly is also unlikely to be the last.
But it is duly important to recognize that extreme voices, like those behind the chants, even if they are on the fringe, can wield a profound amount of power in the absence of a fully-functioning state.
Still, after the Arab uprisings and military intervention in Libya, an abundance of weapons (many of which are largely unaccounted for) and proliferation of weapons and the easy access to these weapons have provoked the kind of chaos that let to the loss of four Americans in Libya on Tuesday.
Sure, it does seem that America is damned if it does involve itself and damned if it doesn't. Sure, the politicization of this tragedy in the context of the presidential campaigns is ill-advised and regrettable. But there is a conversation we should be having. What is the new role of America in the new Middle East?
I do not have the answers. But as an Arab-American who suffered at the hands of the prejudice and demonization of all things Muslim and Arab that consumed American politics and the media following 9/11. I am compelled to promote tolerance, even as we try to understand the reasons we have lost an Ambassador in Libya. After all, as we saw with the unfolding events, extremism begets extremism.
As Libya's Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur put it in a condemning tweet on Wednesday "the cowardly act of attacking the U.S. consulate and the killing of Mr Stevens and the other diplomats" is a product of hate and bigotry.
As the New York Times reported, the trailer was uploaded to YouTube by Sam Bacile, whom The Wall Street Journal Web site identified as a 52-year old Israeli-American real estate developer in California.
He told the WSJ he had raised $5 million from 100 Jewish donors to make the film. "Islam is a cancer," Mr. Bacile was quoted as saying.
I say intolerance is the cancer. The demonization of the other is the cancer. The cure? Tolerance.
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OBAMA 2012
Stay strong fellow Democrats!
I like people to say what they want ,spill your guts and screw yourself. Freedom of speech is something Muslims esp. in the middle east can not appreciate.As I watched the news since the murder of the Ambassador there was a clip of a middle east muslim man saying if america insults Ala then he or they will kill. Killing over an insult is ignorant .I am Roman Catholic,it is very popular in the US to insult catholics and our religion- it only makes me stronger in my faith an belief that the only true religion desired by God is the Roman Catholic faith. Athist enjoy arguing the existance of God and try very hard to sway a believer - I stand even stronger.The man who made the vidio had every right to make it , post it. Muslims have every right to refut it and say what they believe to be true. If a Muslim believes killing is the right answer then he will pay the price in this life and before God. Killing is a sin in all faiths.Killing is a crime and should be punished -believer and nonbeliever .
YouTube is the owner of their property and thus has given restrictions to all of its subscribers of the content of which they post. That being said, there is more blame to go around on this issue and I say start with YouTube for not catching the video in the first place. They need to put up better filters. YouTube has since taken down the video trailer so that let's the world know how they view Sam Bacile's Freedom of Speech - First Amendment Rights.
So ask yourself why would anyone in their right mind put up a video to only find themselves later having to go into hiding after the fact? How stupid is that?
Here is the flipside:
Should free enterprise suffer and be expelled from the marketplace to sell their clothing (ie Hoodies) because of Trayvon's death? No. Should Americans have their First Amendment Rights taken from them because one Israeli-American did a foolish thing in posting an offensive video to Muslims and Arabs on YouTube? No.
YouTube need to put up better filters.
Romney used this tragic event to score political points; it was in poor form for him to do so towards President Obama. In times of national tragedy we as Americans should stand firm behind our President...period.
That is not the nature of Creation or the Universe..!
There we see Romney happily shaking hands with lines of smiling, apparently enthusiastic supporters.
Um, yes, but something seems not quite right about those pictures.
What?
Glad you asked.
What's wrong is that these crowd shots are STOCK footage first shots weeks ago but played over and over again since then.
At one time, respectable news shows labeled their STOCK footage as such, dating it, for examples.
But, hey, that was then, this is now.
And STOCK footage that can be trotted out time and time again is FREE. No cost. (While getting FRESH footage actually costs some money.)
Cut all foreign aid, call all military home from any Muslim country, and these people would turn on themselves. Libya, Eygpt, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afganistan would all implode. We then move into Afganistan, take control of the "nukes", and destroy them.
Peace returns to the world!!!! The Muslim world returns to the 1300s as the leader prefer, but they are unable to bother us.
There are so many targeted killings and corresponding vows of revenge taking place, it may be that this unfortunate event was just that, a planned act of revenge?
I suspect the movie became more of an accelerant to the initial events.
We may never know for certain as it has now entered the world of politics.
You mean free speech?
1. In days before political correctness, when kids used to be self-reliant in a school yard, they learned not to give in to the bully. As soon as bully senses your weakness you'r done. USA declared weakness in foot big letters and put it before Muslim eyes - the results came, as expected.
2. Self-respected country, lead by someone with a spine, would consider it (events in Egypt and Libya) a declaration of war (check by yourself, what position of an Ambassador involves in International Law and diplomacy practice)
3. The most tolerant and pacifist government would immediately stop any kind of financial, military and technological assistance
4. Less tolerant should increase two-fold that part of Libya, which is desert, just to make a statement
Punishing a government for the actions of a few citizens would be as crazy as, say, rioting because of a film that is upsetting.
In the words of Rodney King "Can't we all just get along"