Various Arab factions ginning up outrage for their own purposes

[cthulu2016]

What is going on in Egypt, Yemen and Libya is not due to any outside (non-Arab) precipitating factor. It is an intra-Arab move on the part of some Islamist (aka Islamic theocrat) elements.

Conservatives ginning up outrage for their own purposes is a dynamic all to familiar to we Americans in the form of the Tea Party, etc..

There is nothing spontaneous going on—no more than outrage over "the war on Christmas" arose spontaneously among American conservatives.

We have Egyptian religious TV that reaches the whole Arabic speaking world deceiving its viewers on 9/11 to provoke baseless outrage. We have theocratic leaders using the stories disseminated by TV to assemble protests against American diplomatic buildings. And we have a jihadi group using one such (peaceful) protest as cover for an attack on a consulate with explosives and heavy machine guns, resulting in 4 American deaths and some larger number of Libyan deaths. As to whether actions against the US embassy in Yemen are "ordinary" protesters or some sort of jihadi mischief, I don't know.

Since Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood party needs some level of theocratic impulse and continual outrage against external enemies the Egyptian government has been complicit in maintaining the troublesome but non-deadly agitation at the US embassy.

(Meanwhile, the Libyan government does not seek, at this time, to antagonize the US.)

We like to think the world is all about us... that everyone outside the US are players in our domestic drama, and that they stage these street theater pieces for our consumption. But it makes a big difference to some people in Egypt whether the lead story on the news in Egypt is protests at the American embassy. And it makes a big difference to some people in Egypt that some Egyptians can be made to believe that some home-made movie is typical of American television, and carries the imprimatur of the US government.

Meanwhile, jihadists, like pickpockets, will always be drawn to a crowd. The entire AQ network is an exercise in political opportunism and running to the front of the parade.

This whole thing appears to me to be the metastasis of internal Egyptian religious politics. Egypt is by far the most populous Arab nation and in the satellite TV based Arab media world has a lot of cultural influence.

[rustydog]

1. What is the muslim equivalent of Pat Robertson? John Bolton? Dick Cheny? The PNAC accord?

Fundamentalists of all walks are dangerous

[CJCRANE]

2. But it's still possible that someone made this movie to deliberately

give the muslim fundies ammunition to rile up their base.

Most of us are guilty of looking for the latest shiny, topical story...and this video handed it to the muslim fundie priests on a platter.

[cthulu2016]

3. Possible? Sure. But that has profound problems

There is no way anyone could have a reasonable expectation that their homemade movie would do anything whatsoever.

The reaction to this movie has nothing to do with the movie itself. There was no way to know that this youtube clip would be chosen by Egyptian politicians as a cause celbre.

The world is full of things Muslims could chose to be upset about. This film is just one more.

Could the film-maker have reasonably assumed that Egyptian elected officials would be on TV outright lying to the people in saying that this piece of crap was shown on American television, and is typical of our programming, and was made as part of our annual 9/11 anti-muslim TV hatefest, or that the US government is somehow complicit in its production?

It's not the film, it is the lies about the film.

These people are not protesting a lone crackpot posting something on youtube. It is being presented to them, by people with an agenda who know it is false, as representative all of American culture.

So the, "Surely you knew the lies that would be spread about your film..." argument falls flat to me.

[4th law of robotics]

4. In their position I'd be more offended by the lack of freedom, economic opportunity

and stability rather than what someone posted on youtube.

[CJCRANE]

6. I don't know the relationship of the film maker to the TV pundit

or how the movie was brought to their attention.

We generally accept the example of Anders Breivik and the Sikh Temple shooter of being people affected by RW propaganda. We know it has an effect so we condemn it but of course we can't prove causation. The same applies to the Nazi caricatures of Jews and Rwanda radio - we know that certain words and images can have a negative effect on people.

IMO the film maker knew the effect their movie would have - if they also had contacts who could put it in the right place at the right time then even more so.

Does that make them legally culpable - no, of course not. But IMO it makes them morally in the wrong, but not as much as the people who use and act on their propaganda.

[cthulu2016]

9. If there was collusion then yes, that would be different

But I haven't seen any indication of a connection between the film-maker and Al Nas TV, for instance.

But yes, if such a link existed it would be of great interest.

[Kindly Refrain]

10. He did have a reasonable expectation

Sam Bacile, whoever that might be, went around youtube posting the video in Arab language news feeds. Of course he expected this outcome and facilitated it.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. If the agitators hadn't agitated would anyone in those mobs ever seen the film?

I mean, seriously, it was an unknown film by obscure people. Now the film is (in)famous because those who were looking for an excuse. We cannot be expected to appease people who *want* to wage attacks (how many spontaneous protests involve RPGs?) by monitoring ever cockamamie amateur film produced by unknown nobodies posted on youtube.

The killers wanted a pretext to kill. Even if that film never existed Amb. Stevens would still be dead.

[CJCRANE]

7. Maybe, maybe not. The people with the rocket launchers were probably not part of the protests

so that's a red herring.

Would the tea partiers be saying "bomb Libya!" without this incident. Probably not. Topical things get topical reactions.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. "The people with the rocket launchers were probably not part of the protests"

I can't help but think the people carrying RPGs are somehow connected to the people calling for a riot over ginned-up outrage.

[CJCRANE]

11. The Pentagon stated that it was a planned attack probably by Al Qaeda

or a related group that used the protests as cover and the purpose of the attack was probably retaliation for a previous strike on them.

These are two events that appear to be separate. They are definitely separate from the protests in Egypt which were ginned up by a TV pundit.