Islamophobia

   One man, an admitted conman and a former drug manufacturer with little to no experience with film-making, has inflamed the Middle East. A YouTube clip of the movie Innocence of Muslims, thought to be directed by one Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, has instigated protests throughout the Middle East.  The United States rightly condemns the video, but many people have still to be quelled.
   Obviously, Nakoula is an Islamophobe; and sadly, he's not the only one. Many will remember Florida pastor Terry Jones' threats to burn the Qur'an, the rhetoric about the Ground Zero mosque, among many other anti-Islamist events in this country. Even some who don't go out of their way to harass or smear Muslims still treat them with suspicion or distaste. 
   Andrew Bacevich, a journalist for Mother Jones, writes, "With the launching of the Global War on Terrorism, Islamism succeeded Communism as the body of beliefs that, if left unchecked, threatened to sweep across the globe with dire consequences for freedom." To clarify, he is writing about how some people view Islam as the new threat to the "American Way," a spot which used to be occupied by Communism during the Cold War. 
   These people justify their views with  9-11, the Taliban, and al-Shabaab fanatics in Somalia. However, it is unfair to characterize a religion based on some of its most extreme members. So why does it still happen?
   The people who burn American flags and the people who burn Qur'ans are locked in a cycle; both point to each others' actions as justification for their own. It's a cycle of hatred, and  it will continue as long as both sides keep on committing hate crimes.
   This was terribly optimistic, I know, but the the hatred of the few has attracted the attention of the many, and has subsequently caused a complete uproar. It just gives you a perspective on how a few people can really change the world; sometimes, for the worse, not the better.