Games Without Frontiers

Faith endures even when the world is on fire.  Those words seem to hold true in light of the idiocy going on in the name of religion in the Arab world.  And America, the symbol, not the nation or its people is being assaulted.

Here is what I find fascinating about the whole deal about the anti-Islamic movie.  It was created with the specific intent of stirring up Muslims and getting the reaction that they wanted.  It is sort of like the bully who chooses to intentionally provoke the kid with the bad temper to watch him go off. 

Predictably, those who have an anti-American intent in the Arab world have seized upon the film to orchestrate coordinated attacks on American symbols in their own countries.  The symbols they choose are the embassies and consulates.  This move comes straight from the playbook first created by the Iranian extremists in the 1970s.  It is guaranteed to get strong media play throughout the world.

What happened in Libya, has all of the trademarks of a terrorist attack masked as a protest.  To me the intent of this attack was clearly to kill an Ambassador and create as much distrust of the new Libyan government as possible.   I am sure there was also a desire to stir up increased anti-Arab rhetoric in America as well, knowing that when this happens it makes the Islamist argument of America as the great Satan easier to sell.

To my way of thinking, the best course for America, the country, is to identify the source of the attack and use our capacities to eliminate the source.  At the same time, there needs to be an effort made to get the crackpots who foment this hatred against a faith they know little about to stop.

I know that the last part will never happen, since extremist of all faiths see theirs as the one true faith and all others are infidels.  This takes me back to my argument that “true believers” are the source of many of the world’s problems.  For “true believers” lack the ability or willingness to consider opinions or beliefs other than their own as having validity.  This makes it oh so easy to demonize those that don’t believe as they do.