Last week, the streets of the Middle East saw vehement protests against the movie"Innocence of Muslims", an American-produced film which mocked Muslims and the prophet Muhammad. This incident is provocative for reflections on the relations between the West and the Islamic world, though it is only one incident of many in the long history of the confrontations between the two. Confrontations between the West and Islam are, in fact, much more deeply rooted.
Objectively speaking, the Muslim world should not attribute the blasphemous film to the incumbent American administration. No evidence indicates that the US government participated in the production or promotion of the movie. Many even doubt whether the full-length movie actually exists beyond its 14-minute promotional clip posted on internet sites such as YouTube.
US President Barack Obama regards himself as understanding Islamic culture better than his predecessors and is determined to change his predecessor’s Middle East policy. During his visit to Turkey in 2009, Obama promised that the US would never fight a war with the Muslim world. And he made promise that the US would develop closer relations with Muslim countries on the basis of “common interests and mutual respect” during his landmark speech in Cairo in the middle of 2009.
By all considerations, Obama has showed restraint in his policy toward the Middle East. The US refused to impose a war on Iran as a solution to the nuclear issue despite pressures from Israelis and Jewish lobbyists. Additionally, the US refused to lead the uprising which overthrew former Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi, albeit modest participation. Obama has also shown prudence in America’s limited involvement in Syria’s war to topple the Bashar Assad regime, despite the fact that the US opposes an Iran-Syria alliance.
Obama’s cool head may have prevented all-out crisis, but it has not reversed the hostilities felt in the Muslim world. Deep enmity towards the Judeo-Christian belief structure of the West, which has existed since the Crusades began over one thousand years ago, has not eclipsed with the passing of the time. The backwardness and poverty of the Muslim world today are still bitter reminders of Western colonial rule. And the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of counter-terrorism which began ten years ago have left long lasting scars in the hearts of Muslims.
It is self-evident that neither any individual leader nor any administration can significantly reverse these sentiments. Even leaders as wise as Barack Obama cannot prevent his people from desecrating the Islamic religion. The Libyan people, who now lack the control of a strong man like Qaddafi, have upped their hostilities toward America.
The so-called "Arab Spring" has not changed and will not change the vulnerable nature of the relations between the West and the Islamic world. The US and the West attribute the Middle East extremism and anti-Americanism to the authoritarian regimes of the region. That is to a large extent the reason why George Bush’s administration had promoted democracy in the region by military means, and Barack Obama’s administration offered political support for the oppositions in the Arab Spring.
But such intervention does not necessarily mean that the people of those countries, which have weathered democratic movements, will naturally identify with Western-style democracy. On the contrary, the "pioneering" revolutionary countries of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen are leading this new wave of anti-Americanism. In Libya, a coordinated attack by an extremist group killed US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself angrily questioned: “How can this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?”
If it really wants to improve relations with the Muslim world, a more balanced policy towards the Israel-Palestine situation would be an indispensible pre-condition. US partiality for Israel has been an obstacle to reconciliation for the past two decades. Although it has been reported in the media that Coptic Christians may be the ones responsible for producing "The Innocence of Muslims," many in the Arab world believe that the movie was produced by American Jews. Thus, anti-Americanism, fueled by seeming inseparable US-Israeli ties, continues to rise.
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, claimed last Friday that the number-one culprit in this crime is Zionism and the American government. Unfortunately, this is not just indicative of the Ayatollah’s personal perspective, but a view shared by a majority of Muslims around the world.
source：china.org.cn