Here’s the Guardian’s live blog of the storming of on the American embassy in Sana’a Yemen by “hundreds” of protesters. From that blog, This item is an interesting take on the filmmakers’ motivations by Egyptian journalist Hani Shukrallah:
My first suggestion in this respect is that the makers of the film had deliberately set out to goad Muslims into just such violent and irrational reactions as we have seen in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere.
It’s been tested many times before, and even if we can’t blame the penchant of certain influential political and ideological forces among us for ignorance and stupidity, we can still argue that those who would set out to trigger such responses are in possession of a very clear manual setting out how to do it, and the broad outlines of expected outcomes.
[…] The obvious, outward motive of such attempts is not difficult to discern: to show Muslims as irrational, violent, intolerant and barbaric, all of which are attributes profoundly inscribed into the racist anti-Muslim discourse in the West.And, it’s a very safe bet that there will be among us those who will readily oblige.
I can guess at two additional motives, one of an immediate, specifically targeted nature, and the other considerably more general and strategic in nature. America is hurtling towards presidential elections in which Barak Hussein Obama is running for a second term. For large sections of the American Christian Right (closely allied to rightwing Zionism), Obama is, if not the anti-Christ, than at the very least a Muslim mole planted in the White House.
For his part, Obama, from the very start of his presidency, had set out to douse the fires of the “clash of civilizations” then still raging courtesy of Messrs Bush and Bin Laden, among others. An editorial in the New York Times commenting on Obama’s famous address to the Muslim world from Cairo University, lauded him for having “steered away from the poisonous post-9/11 clash of civilizations mythology that drove so much of President George W. Bush’s rhetoric and disastrous policy.”
To reignite “the clash” in some form serves to bolster the American Right as a whole, the American Christian Right (which is a mainstay of the Republican Party) specifically, while at the same time undermining Obama, who at best had acted to bring it to an end, and at worst is “a bloody Muslim” himself.
A much broader motivation, which does not exclude Obama as target, is to tarnish, even to deny the very existence of an Arab Spring.
The whole thing is worth a read, since it’s from a perspective we don’t hear much from our media.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I can guarandamntee you that if Dubya were President, or Rmoney or McCain, this kind of film would never have been produced. And that asshole pastor wouldn’t have burned Korans.
It’s just like militia and domestic, cracker-driven militia/terrorism: activity levels go down when there’s a wingnut in the WH, goes up when there’s a Democrat.
MattF
Here, for the record, is the official Slate “Nobody here but us contrarians” view of Romney’s foreign policy debacle:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/09/u_s_embassy_attack_mitt_romney_was_quick_to_let_his_views_be_known_in_response_to_the_foreign_policy_crisis_in_libya_and_egypt_.html
There’s also a rational piece on the subject from Fred Kaplan.
Mino
My tinfoil hat cannot block the incoming. Who profits when Muslims are discredited? Who is spewing money to defeat Obama? And is also BF with a certain politician? Where did 5 million dollars come from?
Maybe Obama should make a visit to Israel to speak with Bibi’s opposition and see how he likes that.
Schlemizel
is it any wonder JC is depressed? We live in a stupid fucking world populated by evil children happy to make or take offense at the misbehavior of other evil children over the slightest provocation. Their tantrums stampede the herd and thereby direct us all closer to the cliffs of insanity.
Reelecting this President, even in the unlikely event of a Dem Congress will not stop these evil children It might in fact enrage them further.
JPL
@Schlemizel: What depresses me is that Mitt is going to start receiving intelligence briefings? He can’t be trusted with classified information.
MikeJ
I remember when they tried to sell the idea that the Arab spring came about because of the genius of Bush. When nobody bought that idea they suddenly decided that popular movements overthrowing dictators were bad.
c u n d gulag
And if some filmaker in a Muslim country made a movie about ‘the passion of the Christ’ being either Peter, or Paul, or both at th same time – do we think our Dominionist Christian Evangelical pals here in America would take it lying down, or try to burn down every Mosque they could get to?
Freedom of speech is one thing, having some common feckin’ sense is another.
But I think that dipshit dirtwater FL religious grifter, and whoever the other guy is, whose name should be M. Bacile, didn’t have either free speech in mind, and certainly no common sense.
They used their free speech to make some stupid and degrading piece of th*t that would inflame the Muslims in the Middle East, to try to help Conservatives/Republicans win back power.
I hope they’re proud of themselves.
They now have the lives of at least 4 American diplomats on their ledger sheets.
I’m as big a free speech advocate as there is, but I’m also a fan of common sense. This was like yelling fire in a crowded theatre.
And I wish we had a SEAL Team 7, that would take out another intolerant religious fanatic – Terry Jones.*
*Ok, I’m kidding about that.
I am kidding, aren’t I?
Todd
Nooners now has this “gin eye” thing going. It isn’t attractive.
Todd
Scarborough is now credulous about why Mittens is tripling down on his lie.
I’m screaming at the TV.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Mino: There are lots of Muslims who profit from inciting the faithful to riot, which is why we see them incited to riot quite often.
Cassidy
@c u n d gulag:
This doesn’t bother them at all. OT, there are only 3 SEAL teams.
Brandon
Why is no one asking why these foreign governments, who seem to have no problems cracking down on dissent, cannot fulfill their obligations under international law to protect the foriegn missions of other countries. To me, that is the real scandal here.
sherparick
I think the timing of this was very deliberate, and within the epistemic bubble of the Neo-Con and Christian Right (for very different reasons and visions both groups hope to trigger a Middle East Armageddon), I guess made sense since they think the chaos will make Obama look bad and help the Mittster win reelection. Within the tribe that bounces from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh to Focus on the Family to NEWSMAX and Red State.com for the news this works, but all those folks were voting for Mittster anyway. However, even within that much of that tribe, their is little enthusiasm for entering new Muslim and Arab lands to slaughter and be slaughtered by the infiels, after a eleven years soaked in blood. And outside the bubble, more intervention into this world is at best depressing, if not horrifying. And this is what the Mittster seems to be making part of campaign, a promise of belligerence with not just the Muslim world, but China and Russia and if our European allies don’t get with the program. With John Bolton (who also had other “priorities” as young man that kept him from serving in Vietnam) we will have the Chickenhawk foreign policy on steroids. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/05/01/110814/-Bolton-avoided-Vietnam-duty
noodler
Now Yemen, wonderful. Since I am heading to Sanaa as a Foreign Service Officer.
noodler
Now Yemen, wonderful. Since I am heading to Sanaa as a Foreign Service Officer.
Valdivia
@Todd:
so now Mitt is a hero again? spine of steel?
raven
The interview with this guy that spent 8 months with Obama is fantastic.
beltane
I wonder if this is part of some concerted effort on the part of the Christianist right. Just before all this started happening in the mid-east my husband’s “Christian” FB friends were all pissy because Christianity wasn’t getting its due at the 9/11 memorials because I guess the WTC attacks were an attack on Jesus or something. They were especially irate that a group of atheists was allowed to protest the presence of a cross at the site because atheists should not be allowed to live let alone exercise their free speech rights.
While I laughed it off and told him that just because he went to high school with bad people doesn’t mean he has to friend them on FB, I wonder if these pea-brained sad sacks have been programmed by their pastors to believe that 2012 really is the year of the apocalypse and that their crappy little movie is part of the plan.
Ash Can
I’m starting to have many of the same questions myself. The timing, the extent of organization, and the shell-game nature of the “film” in particular make me wonder who’s really behind this and why. Yes, I can see how it could simply be one Coptic Christian with an axe to grind against the Egyptian government, and everything else is coincidence. But I’d still like to know for sure where that $5 million came from (assuming that’s not a lie too).
Todd
@Valdivia:
More like “why would he do that even though he knows the timeline now?”
Valdivia
@Todd:
thanks. I guess the obvious answer is not one he wants to acknowledge.
Tokyokie
@noodler: Best of luck to you in that assignment. I realize that for every glamorous Foreign Service posting like Paris or Tokyo, there’s three or four backwaters like Sana’a, and Christian dipshits inflaming Muslim dipshits to make a particular backwater positively dangerous makes things exponentially worse.
Schlemizel
@JPL: if only some intelligence could rub off on him it might help
Schlemizel
@Brandon: But neither Libya nor Egypt has that sort of government any more. We helped break those rulers. The results are messy.
greennotGreen
Is “incitement to riot” against the law in any of these countries, i.e., Libya, Egypt, Yemen? Could we not extradite this Egyptian American Christianist provocateur to one of them? Seems like deliberately causing an international incident should be against the law somewhere.
Todd
@Valdivia:
He runs up to the moment of saying it, then backs off. He may as well flat out spit it out.
Ash Can
@noodler: Oy.
Scott
@MattF: That slate article is crap. Pretends Mitt wasnt lying about O’s apology.
Schlemizel
@Ash Can:
The other interesting bit is that this POS sat unloved on youtube for a couple of months. It got next to 0 hits. Then a week or so ago the Rush Lamebrain of Egypt somehow became aware of it and used it exactly the way our own bloated pigboy would. Suddenly its trending through the roof in Muslim countries. I sure would like to know how he found it.
We know he used it for his own ends he is after all Rush in a burnoose. It makes hi more popular with the insane crowd that listens to him & therefore richer. That some people died because of his ranting is not his bother
Mino
Interesting, just heard that Bibi’s opposition, the Defense minister, is coming to US in a couple of weeks to meet with Obama. I think that will effectively shut Netanyahu’s pie hole.
Laura
@c u n d gulag:
I’ve seen a few people make comments similar to this. it’s disingenuous. You might get some acts of vandalism, maybe small pockets of violence. You would NOT get hundreds of people out rioting in the streets.
Mino
@Ash Can: I think the attack on the Lybian embassy was opportunistic and related to our drone kill of AQ#2. Just my opinion.
But the film bruhaha was orchestrated by smarter people than that Florida idiot.
Valdivia
@Mino:
Ehud Barak? If that is the case that truly means Bibi is trying to go it alone in the whole nuke Iran by themselves ahead of the election. The Remnick piece in the New Yorker was very informative yesterday
beltane
There is clearly ratf*cking going on but who, exactly, is behind it http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/13/1131196/–Sam-Bacile-is-a-cutout-He-doesn-t-exist
If it is anyone even remotely connected to the Romney campaign one wonders if there will be a price to pay.
beltane
@Laura: Most American religious fundamentalists live in comfortable, sprawling suburbs where there are no streets to riot in. They don’t step outdoors to do anything. But just because they wear normal clothes, drive SUVs and eat Chik-fil-a doesn’t mean they are not violent. They support terrorism with their prayers and wallets, not with their blood.
Mino
@Valdivia: http://www.timesofisrael.com/barak-to-visit-us-next-week/
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
@beltane: Its good to see reporters digging into the background. This was so sloppy that the trail back to Romney’s campaign may not be too difficult to discover.
amk
@beltane: There you go.
Napoleon
@raven:
What are you talking about? I am assuming Michael Lewis of Blindside and Moneyball fame?
AxelFoley
@Schlemizel:
So what are you suggesting?
Ash Can
@beltane:
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937:
If this is traced back to the Romney campaign, even I would be shocked. Not that I don’t think there are Republicans and RWNJs capable of doing this sort of thing; I just have a hard time believing the Romney campaign would take that huge a risk. Standing on the sidelines watching it all unfold and cheering it on and keeping their fingers crossed, yes. But direct involvement? I really doubt it.
Paul
@JPL:
I don’t get this. Should the Green Party candidate, the Constitution Party candidate also get intelligence briefings then?
AFAIK, unlike Obama, Romney hasn’t sworn the oath like Obama did.
Schlemizel
@AxelFoley:
to quote the great Woody Allen
“Mankind is facing a crossroad – one road leads to despair and utter hopelessness and the other to total extinction – I sincerely hope we choose the right road”
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@beltane: Like the churches with their own militias described in the article you linked to.
Napoleon
@Paul:
It has long been done that the major opp. party Pres Cand. and his staff are given the briefings.
beltane
@Ash Can: “You are who you walk with”. The Romney campaign wouldn’t have produced the movie themselves but I would not at all be surprised if there was a lot of winking and nodding (and smirking) going on between the Romney people and the Christianist producers of the film. Romney is weak and not well trusted by the Christianists; he will gladly be their b*tch no matter who or what is harmed in the process.
Ash Can
@Paul: I’m thinking there are various layers of classification — that there are intelligence briefings, and then there are intelligence briefings.
beltane
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I’d like to hear David Neiwert’s take on this. He has been warning us about these people for years.
Paul
@Napoleon:
I understand. Obama himself got an intelligence briefing as a candidate when he ran in 2008. I just don’t understand the logic.
Would Ross Perot have gotten a briefing in 1992 when he drew 19%? Where do they draw the line between a major party and not a major party? Or is by law/tradition only the GOP and the Dems that get it? What happens when demographics may make the GOP a minor party?
japa21
I have not heard on any major newscast (and I have not heard all of them) any mention of the 10-12 Libyans who died trying to protect the consulate. Has anybody else. Plus, I have seen little mention in the MSM of the pro-American demonstrations in Libya yesterday. Has anybody else?
Whenever I see that the demonstrators number in the “hundred” I wonder about it. If this was truly a massive protest of the film, and truly a population based show of anti-Americanism, there would be demonstrations where the participants number in the thousands.
schrodinger's cat
The timing of these protests is all too convenient for Romney.
Since he is an incompetent politician and it backfired on Romney is another story. There is something more than meets the eye, what it is I don’t know. Who benefits if there is a permanent wedge driven between the Middle East and the US? I wouldn’t be too surprised if the neocons are involved in this either directly or indirectly.
beltane
@japa21: That’s a good point. In countries where protests often number in the tens of thousands of people, a few hundred people protesting in front of an embassy would usually be seen as unremarkable. I grew up in NYC a few blocks from the UN and such protests were the rule, not the exception.
Laura
@japa21: Most of the reports I’ve seen have mentioned that it was Libyans who carried the ambassador’s body to the hospital to try to save him. At the least.
The Thin Black Duke
@Schlemizel: Voting for Romney is not an option, so please put the brakes on that damned nonsense right now, O.K.?
quannlace
On the morning news I heard a clip “Republicans who criticized Romney yesterday are now singing his praises.” The hell? Are they trying one last attempt to prop him up? Then when I got online I saw some of these ‘praises.’ Santorum? Herman Cain? Really? That’s the best they could scrape up?
Linda Featheringill
Hani Shukrallah’s article:
Very nice article. Bravo.
At the bottom of the article is a form for sending in a comment. I included my physical location [Ohio] because I thought it might serve the cause of peace if he got messages of peace from all parts of the US.
Suffern ACE
@greennotGreen: Yep. Maybe someone should ask the grand mufti why he chose to sermonize about this film no one ever heard of and the billionaire Saudi owner of the tv station that played the clip why they decided to incite riots over such a trivial film. It’s actually on those myslim religious grifter types too. Once that happens then we can talk about extraditing crazy coptic film makers.
c u n d gulag
@Laura:
As evidence of my point:
http://www.aaj.tv/2012/08/seven-us-mosques-attacked-in-last-few-days/
http://www.aaj.tv/2012/08/seven-us-mosques-attacked-in-last-few-days/
And these were, essentially, unprovoked. This is just violent reaction to normal election year anti-Islam bullshit from Conservative politicians trying to use the Muslim faith as a wedge issue with Christians.
And no, there weren’t hundreds of protesters.
But then, Mosques are symbols of religion, embassies are symbols of governments.
So, our idiot’s are burning Mosques, and vandalizing graveyards, out of hate for a faith.
The idiot’s in the Middle East, are attacking embassies of a country that has too much power in their area, and allows some rampant Islamophobia to be used to gin-up votes by crackers for other crackers.
And don’t bring up free-speech, because there is little of any of it in the Middle East – and the concept of freedom of, and FROM, religion, is equally as foreign a concept.
So, to your point, no, we haven’t had mass demonstrations in front of Mosques RECENTLY, with acts of violence that accompany them – at least not yet.
1badbaba3
Let’s see, war mongering, sabre rattling crypto-fascists with access to unlimited corporate cash uneasy about the prospect of a cooling of tension and hostilities. Well that cash certainly isn’t just going to be used for campaign commercial saturation, and bad incindiary videos. Just how many private (secret) contractors does it take to screw in a lightbulb, er…um… build a nation?
ericblair
@Ash Can:
Intelligence information is divided into compartments, and some are more sensitive than others. For example, the less sensitive, broader compartment may say something like “sources in Country X”, while a more sensitive compartment for people who need to know it would replace that with “source WASHINGMACHINE”, and the most sensitive would say that WASHINGMACHINE is Joe Q. Blow, deputy newspaper-ironer to the foreign secretary.
I’d guess that the candidate would get a briefing appropriate to knowing what’s going on, but not the details of specific sources and methods that he wouldn’t have to know at that point.
greennotGreen
@Suffern ACE: Yes, I agree. There are many culpable parties here. However, the lack of justice in another country is no reason not to pursue it in our own. Which is not to say the American perps should be used as scapegoats. Maybe the legal argument is that you can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theater.
smintheus
Here’s something that’s worth stressing about the Cairo embassy’s reaction on Tuesday. I wonder whether it’s gotten enough attention in the media; it helps to explain why the embassy thought it needed to publicly distance itself from the video. From an AP report about the clown who produced the video:
That is inciting violence against the US government. For many people living under an authoritarian regimes, the assumption would be that the video had official backing.
beltane
@smintheus: Wow, I hadn’t heard that. For accuracy’s sake, the clown who produced the video should have said it was a 27% American movie.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mino:
I can’t say I blame you. It’s pretty obvious who imagines they’ll benefit from this, and who has the means to do so.
The clip has the right amount of amateurish production values to be disavowable, yet sends the proper signals to Muslim countries to get the crazies there in a crazy mood.
@smintheus:
This. Their frame of reference rather leads precisely to this assumption, one that we can’t grasp. As c u n d gulag points out, the concepts of freedom of and from religion are just not concepts that are easily grokked in much of the Arab world. Heck, the concept of freedom from religion isn’t grokked in some parts of the United States. I live in a notoriously “unchurched” state, so it’s perfectly natural here, as it would not be in the deep south.
Suffern ACE
@greennotGreen: Honestly – I think it’s the Muslim inflamers who are actually yelling “fire” here.
OMG-here’s something no one heard about or cared about. In fact, it’s actually obscure. Here-lets broadcast it up to millions of people in a land where anti-Copt sentiment is high and see what happens.
Who the hell yelled fire? Who twisted the story to say that this was supported by the US government?
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@beltane:
Already said this in another thread… but Romney acted like he knew what was going to happen before it did.
IMO, somebody leaked to his campaign.
Lots of Mormons in the alphabet agencies, BTW.
Villago Delenda Est
@smintheus:
I might point out, too, that the video was posted in July, but the Arabic subtitles only in the last few days.
That’s when this thing took off and riots started breaking out in front of US consular offices and embassies.
protected static
It probably isn’t a coincidence that this morning I got some absolutely outrageous spam touting an anti-Mohammed ‘parody’ being sold on Amazon. I would guess that there’s a serious right-wing effort going on to stir up anti-Islamic sentiment – and to stir up anti-American sentiment in the process.
Villago Delenda Est
@Paul:
Like swearing an oath means anything at all to an honorless cur like Dubya OvenMitt Rmoney.
grandpa john
@beltane: Because of the type of weapons that was present and used, there is suspicion the the “Spontaneous demonstration” was actually a cover for a planned terrorist type raid on the embassy
grandpa john
@Villago Delenda Est: but you can bet he will before he sees anything of importance
smintheus
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes. The producer wasn’t getting the reaction he wanted (see the AP story I linked to…people who knew him say he knew it would cause a firestorm), so he reposted it in Arabic. And then he went back to add comments to goad Muslims into violence.
gene108
Pretty succinct commentary on right-wing reaction to this incident.
Right-wingers on the internet are bemoaning why we helped over throw Gaddafi and Mubarak because a strong hand like they employed was the only thing keeping the Muslim hoards at bay in those countries.
beltane
@grandpa john: The whole thing seems suspicious. And the way Mitt Romney was smirking like he pulled off another one of his “pranks” casts him in a very suspicious light.
Seanly
Even Time magazine (according to HLN) is reporting that the timing & series of events is suspicious. Regardless of the level of involvement (I think maybe just a head’s up), Romney is continuing to look bad on this.
I think Romney had a head’s up on it as well as some groups likely to be p-o’ed about it in various countries. A more seroius group of jihadists got wind of it and decided to use it as cover for the Benghazi attack.
Romney’s initial statements make no sense for what actually happened. They do appear to be something that some folks think would gain traction if there were violent protests going on, but no actual lose of life. That is, Romney had a canned response ready to go – no matter what the various embassies did or said, no matter what Obama said or did, Romney was planning to hit him. But lose of life at the consulate changed things and makes Romney look like an idiot.
beltane
@gene108: But they didn’t seem to like Saddam Hussein’s “strong hand”. Why is that? Was Saddam’s strong hand not stroking them in their erogenous zones?
Mr Stagger Lee
@Laura: When Martin Scorsese made The Last Temptation of Christ there was some butt-hurt but no craziness, now granted it was a few years ago, still even the most fanatical evangelical realizes that this nation has freedom of speech and yes it also includes religion being parodied. The countries in the Middle East on the other hand brook no insults on Islam, they are hard wired that way, as Pakistani Salmon Rushdie can attest.
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
About three years into Iraq charlie foxtrot, some right wing commentator opined that what we needed in Iraq, to stabilize the country and deal with the religious divisions, was a secular Sunni strongman.
You know, just like the guy we deposed in the first place.
gene108
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Rushdie was born in India and settled in the U.K.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie
Tone In DC
@beltane:
Good thing I haven’t had lunch yet. That mental image would undoubtedly cause me to lose said lunch.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (formerly IrishGrrrl)
I think the Egyptian journalist is spot on. I have a post on my blog that says essentially the same thing. The facts about the supposed Israeli in the U.S. who made the film a while ago and just suddenly started promoting it like crazy on Youtube two weeks ago support the assertion that it was meant to create provocation. But why? To heighten tension in the Middle East, which would push the U.S. more in alignment with Israel’s desire to go to war with Iran–something the President has been strongly resisting. Also to hide a well coordinated and military style attack on our Embassy staff. What better than an angry mob to hide real soldiers in? That means that the supposed Israeli was an agent provocateur and you can bet there were some in Egypt, Libya and Yemen set to spread news and inflame anger to the point of boiling over. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Israeli agents and GOP Neocons didn’t conspire to make this happen.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (formerly IrishGrrrl)
I think the Egyptian journalist is spot on. I have a post on my blog that says essentially the same thing. The facts about the supposed Israeli in the U.S. who made the film a while ago and just suddenly started promoting it like crazy on Youtube two weeks ago support the assertion that it was meant to create provocation. But why? To heighten tension in the Middle East, which would push the U.S. more in alignment with Israel’s desire to go to war with Iran–something the President has been strongly resisting. Also to hide a well coordinated and military style attack on our Embassy staff. What better than an angry mob to hide real soldiers in? That means that the supposed Israeli was an agent provocateur and you can bet there were some in Egypt, Libya and Yemen set to spread news and inflame anger to the point of boiling over. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Israeli agents and GOP Neocons didn’t conspire to make this happen.
TooManyJens
@protected static: I got that spam last month. If you look at the reviews on Amazon, it’s been going on for a while.
miwome
Thanks for drawing attention to this article. I live in Cairo, and tend to pay more attention to Egypt Independent (the English language Al Masry Al Yawm); Al Ahram has much closer ties to the state and so should always be taken with a grain of salt. But this is a great op ed (though there were bits that seemed off to me – the Mubarak regime seeking to out-islamist the islamists? Noooope), and I would have missed it otherwise.
les
@Laura:
I fear your confidence is misplaced–especially if, as was the case here, such a film was presented as the act of, oh, I don’t know, just to pick one, the Iranian government? You really think christianist leaders wouldn’t be screaming for violent reprisal? You really think there wouldn’t be Mosque burnings, protests at embassies, attacks on Muslims generally? You really think there would be no violent whack jobs in the protest crowds? No flag/Koran burnings?
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (formerly IrishGrrrl)
Sorry about the double post, stupid server.
Suffern ACE
@les: Actually, I don’t think we’d pay attention at all to foreign films. Seriously, we’d just think of it as propaganda. Now if the Iranian government bought NBC and started broadcasting anti-christian programming, you might get something. But a foreign movie? Who cares about those?
les
@Suffern ACE:
We wouldn’t be talking about a “foreign film,” or some presentation at Sundance. We’d be talking about an alleged Muslim government attack on Christianity; I think it might get a little more play than, oh, “forcing” xtians to provide women’s health insurance to their secular employees in secular businesses run by churches.
Darkrose
@Brandon: Possibly because it would seem crass to lambaste the Libyans for not protecting the Embassy when several of them died trying.
Darkrose
@Schlemizel: The YouTube video went unnoticed until “Sam Bacile” uploaded a version with an Arabic translation.
protected static
@TooManyJens: That’s… a relief? Almost?
I was caught off guard by it as it was sent to an alias that, while publicly available, almost never gets spam (I’m webmaster for a local outdoor sports club – annually I get at most a handful of spam from adventure tourism operators and from other outdoor/enviro orgs looking for volunteers).
As the timing seemed intended to capitalize on current events, and that alias a very unlikely target, it didn’t seem unreasonable that the same right-wing jackasses would be involved…