Another little known anti-Islamic expression in the West triggers another anti-Western riot in the Muslim world, this time culminating in the disgraceful death of the highest-level American official in the hands of young extremist rioters, storming an American diplomatic compound supposedly protected both by heavy local police presence and international law that the newly formed democratic government in Libya surely have to and willingly abide by. Ironically, the riots only made the previously unknown anti-Islamic film more famous among the common people in the West.
Unfortunately, by now, Western intervention in the Middle East, along with Western exposure to the current events of the Middle East (especially pertaining to "anti-Western" activities so diligently and thoroughly covered by Western media) is no longer considered unusual, and with stories of negative reactions to negative depictions of Islam in the West and coverage of "anti-Western"/"Islamist" leaders being put to power both in democratic and non-democratic fashion have made more and more Westerners convinced that their kind is not welcomed in the Muslim world.
Of course, while the biased coverage of Western media that endless emphasize violence over development in the Middle East, along with fundamental lack of knowledge by non-Muslims of the Muslim world is largely the culprit of such fear of Islam in the non-Muslim world, the over-sensitivity of Muslims toward any minor move infringing upon the so-called purity of Islam is perhaps an even-bigger reason for the entire non-Muslim world to become less and less favorable to Islam in the recent years.
Examination of the Quran and teachings of Islamic scholars show that religious tolerance has been one of the pillars of Islam since its very inception, and such religious tolerance was widely practiced historically from Moorish Spain to the Ottoman Empire that enabled survival of minority religions from Coptic Christianity to Judaism against the intolerant European Christian persecutions. Yet, such respect for other religions that caused Islam to become a global religion today is becoming more and more diminished in the eyes of non-Muslims.
The result of Islam's image becoming more negative among non-Muslim is its inability to continue attracting converts in ways that it, as a major missionary religion throughout history, was previously so capable of doing. No matter how attractive the tenets of Islam as a religion continues to be, few people would be able to take pride in converting to a religion that instigated massacres on the level of September 11th, all in the name of "protecting" the religion from infidels. One can argue that those extremists are of the tiniest minority, but they have became Islam's most "prominent" representative.
And beyond religion, Islam as a political creed capable rationally governing a modern, progressive society capable of integrating with and functioning under an international community is also coming under doubt. "Protecting the honor of Islam" has become the justification for violating the most basic of the unwritten rule of international community, that foreign civilians, and especially diplomatic officials, are to be protected from physical harm despite differing political views. Killing of internationals without them convicted of violating any law does not add credit for political Islam.
While there is no arguing that the West, through unjustified wars and killings, have done much wrong in the Muslim world that warrant some equally violent reactions from Muslims, the extremist Islamists that are inciting the anti-Western riots also need to understand just how dependent their lives are on the West. The money in their pockets come from oil sold to the West or Western investment/aid, and the goods they use are manufactured by Western companies. Alienating the West will ultimately hurt the Muslim world much more the West.
And the greatest victim of all would be Islam's status as a global religion that cross all cultural and national boundaries. As the religion become more and more associated with irrational violence stemming from certain perceived narrow-mindedness and inability to calmly accept criticism by non-believers, it will become less worldly and more focused on self-preservation. And the more inward-looking it becomes, Islam will become more susceptible to the sort of radicalism and lack of reason that defined the actions that generated recent spikes of anti-Western feelings in the Islamic world.
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