Politics, religion ignite fury over anti-Islam film
By Nehal El-Sherif, dpa
Cairo (dpa) – When a local radio reporter was transmitting live anti-US chants outside the US embassy in Cairo, one of the protesters came close to the microphone and began shouting obscenities against former military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
The reporter freaked out and the station cut transmission immediately.
The incident left many wondering what Tantawi had to do with the protests that initially began by hardline-Islamists to denounce a US-made film that depicts Prophet Mohammed as a bloodthirsty womanizer and a paedophile.
Tantawi was the head of the military council, which ruled the country for a year and a half after the ouster of Hosny Mubarak in February 2011. Many people blamed him for “selling” the country to the Muslim Brotherhood after Mohammed Morsi was elected Egypt's first Islamist president in June.
On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters scaled the walls of the US embassy in Cairo, took down the flag and raised a black, Islamist flag instead. Few hours later, a group of armed Libyans set the US consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi on fire and killed four diplomats, including the ambassador.
Protesters in several Arab and Muslim countries took to the streets – sometimes attacking US and European embassies – to protest the film.
“In many countries, the film gave those who seek to destabilize the situation an excuse to mobilize Muslims for irrational confrontations,” Yemeni political analyst Abdul-Bari Taher said.
“While some protests began as a spontaneous reaction, they were later affected by political incitement, which took advantage of the lack of awareness spread among many Muslim communities,” he added.
Taher believes that in Yemen, extremists exploited people's anger to spread violence at a time of instability.
In Egypt, protesters were first identified as Salafists, but as clashes intensified with police and security vehicles were burnt, reports said these were loyalists of ousted president Hosny Mubarak.
The riots in Egypt showed that the film could provide an outlet for anger that had a very different origin. But analysts see it as a golden opportunity for extremists to spread their ideas or attack the West.
Gamal Nkrumah, an editor at Egypt's Al Ahram Weekly newspaper, believes that those who reap the benefits are those who embody conservative Islamist views, now trending in Muslim countries.
“The West is still trying to court the militant Islamists, but Western governments are beginning to realize that the malaise lies deeper than any foreign policy can immediately address.
“Militant Islamists and Western secularist governments are at ideological loggerheads...The Islamists are especially concerned about the West’s cultural influence and the secularizing impact of Western art,” he wrote.
His theory could be applied on the situation in Afghanistan, where hundreds gathered in Kabul, shouting anti-US slogans in protest at the film.
Frictions have been rising in recent days between the United States and President Hamid Karzai, who did not issue a public call for calm, despite calls by President Barack Obama urging him to do what he could to stave off violence.
The violence is also a test for Obama who is seeking a second term in November.
The Republicans and Mitt Romney accused him of weakness in handling the situation.
"I believe that the first beneficiary ... will be the American extreme right, which wants to re-ignite the clash of religions and civilizations ... Raising al-Qaeda flags in the streets is enough to grant the Tea Party group and the extreme right the most needed electoral support,” Iyad Abu Shaqra wrote in the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
