Just a note:
“The White House asked YouTube to review the video to see if it was in compliance with their terms of use,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told POLITICO in an email. The White House said it reached out to YouTube on Tuesday”
Just a little nod to the rioting mobs? To salvage a foreign policy vision for the Middle-East and give the current administration some cover? For the good of our country and our political freedoms?
The ‘movie’ seems awful, really. I should add that the quality of the piece should not be drawing the interest of this administration, as it will have a chilling effect on free speech likely not worth any upside under the liberal internationalist banner. What business do the authorities in this country have in such matters at this moment?
Addition: Walter Russell Mead on Egypt, and the Salafists may be trying to make the Muslim Brotherhood look like appeasers:
‘Unfortunately, Islamic radicals are deliberately hoping to promote a clash of civilizations in the belief that a climate of polarization will strengthen their political power in the world of Islam. Attacking the embassy in Cairo is an effort to push Egyptian opinion in a more radical direction, but the radicals hope that this is part of a larger push that will bring them to power across the Islamic world.’
Another Addition: The Atlantic has more here on Google’s decision. Is it only Google’s decision to make?
Another Addition: Fear. Violence and the threat of violence. The fatwa that changed Salman Rushdie’s life. The New Yorker’s piece on Rushdie.
Related On This Site: Free speech (used both well and unwell) meets offended Muslims: ‘Mohammad Cartoonist Lars Vilks Headbutted‘During Lecture’……From The OC Jewish Experience: ‘UC Irvine Muslim Student Union Suspended’…From Volokh: ‘”South Park” Creators Warned (Threatened) Over Mohammed’…From Volokh: ‘”South Park” Creators Warned (Threatened) Over Mohammed’
Libertarians stand firm on this issue: Repost-A Canadian Libertarian Making Noise: Ezra Levant
Samuel Huntington worked against modernization theory, and argued that a chasm between the West and Islam will be a primary source of post Cold-war conflict: Clash of Civilizations: From The Atlantic: Samuel Huntington’s Death And Life’s Work
Repost-From Beautiful Horizons: ‘Christopher Hitchens and Tariq Ramadan at the 92nd Street Y’
