On the day last week that protesters, angered by an American-made video mocking the Prophet Mohammed, tried to storm the US Embassy in Cairo, President Mohamed Morsi met with a US business delegation to discuss salvaging the Egyptian economy. And, while security forces were trying hard to keep protesters at bay outside the US Embassy, Morsi was in Brussels for talks with European Union officials about offering economic aid to Egypt. The ensuing clashes left casualties among the protesters and security forces. Several police vans were torched too. Morsi, facing the first test for his leadership since becoming President in July, condemned the offensive video, but at the same time confirmed his Government's resolve to protect foreign diplomatic missions and tourists in Egypt. The Islamist President looked at pains in his first inaugural European tour to highlight the genuine, moderate tenets of Islam. While in Italy, he quoted the Holy Qur'an as saying: “Whoever saves a life saves the entire world." The violent protests that erupted in several Muslim countries, including Egypt, must have made Morsi's rationale less impressive. The US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed in an attack by insurgents allegedly infuriated by the video. Stevens was eulogised as a staunch supporter of the Libyans' uprising against Gaddafi's 42-year dictatorship. Angry protesters, meanwhile, attacked the US embassies in Yemen, Tunisia and Sudan. In Sudan, the German and British embassies were also assaulted, although the two countries had nothing to do with the blasphemous video. The Qur'an clearly states that no person should be harmed for a mistake made by another. Accordingly, it is against Islam that foreign diplomats should be attacked for the video, which was dubiously released on the 11th anniversary of the September attacks on the US. Strangely, protesters who scaled the walls of the US Embassy in Egypt and some other Arab countries brandished the black banner distinctive of al-Qaeda. Some others pasted up a portrait of Osama bin Laden. Photos of the slain terror mastermind also popped up in several anti-US protests in other protests in Egypt and other countries. “We tell you Obama, all of us are Osama," chanted some demonstrators outside the US Embassy in Cairo, as others happily waved Bin Laden's flag atop the Embassy walls. What was the message these protesters sought to send to the outside world? Was it that Bin Laden was a true representative of Muslims? That is exactly what haters of Islam have tried for years to instil in the Western mind. They must now be in the seventh heaven. The violent reaction to the kitschy, hateful video, ‘Innocence of Muslims', has boosted the negative Western stereotyping of Muslims as firebrand extremists. The latest blacklash was reminiscent of the deadly turmoil triggered by insults previously hurled at Islam by such people as Salman Rushdi and Terry Jones – the latter was a little-known pastor in Florida until Muslims started to violently decry his Qur'an-burning stunts. Such detractors have earned worldwide fame and even sympathy after some Muslim clerics passed death fatwas against them. What struck one's attention about the latest anti-US protests in Egypt was the high profile of the ultra-conservative Salafists. Was their aim to punish Morsi and his group, the Muslim Brotherhood, for passing them over in recent governmental appointments? Or did the Salafists want to prove they are no less powerful than the Brotherhood? Maybe. Equally strikingly, a group of Egyptian policemen, suspended from duty over sporting beards in violation of regulations, took advantage of the outrage at the American-made video to rally support for their cause. They turned up in Tahrir Square to attend a mass rally called in support of the Prophet Mohamed. They portrayed themselves as devout Muslims who are persecuted, allegedly for their faith. Having failed to learn a lesson from similar incidents in the past, Muslims continue to play into their foes' hands.
