America’s impotent appeal to Muslims

The U.S. embassy in Pakistan spent $70,000 on a one-minute video ad that was run on Pakistani TV on Friday. The ad (which utterly failed to suppress Pakistani anger and violence that resulted in at least 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries) featured the President and the Secretary of State devoutly declaring that America believes in religious tolerance and that the U.S. government had nothing to do with the anti-Muhammad video “Innocence of Muslims.”

Hillary in particular looks ridiculous and without dignity—the top official of the U.S. government begging that people not blame the U.S. government for a silly video produced by some obscure private individual. What is especially cringing and pathetic is the way she stresses the word “absolutely” when she says, “It is obvious that the United States government had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this video.” She couldn’t just say that the government had nothing to do with this video, she had to say it had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with it. Which only made it look as though the lady was protesting too much, as though she were still giving her pink press conference in the Whitewater scandal.

Given the unchanging horrors of Islam, there is going to be no end of videos, cartoons, and books criticizing and insulting Islam. So what is the U.S. government going to do—broadcast an apology ad in Muslim countries every time someone in America insults Islam?

Here is a TV news segment by Al Jazeera about the ad. In addition to bits of Obama and Hillary, it shows some “typical Americans in the street” dissociating themselves from the video. Notice the young metrosexual (at 1:20) saying of America, “We tolerate everything.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard the liberal credo stated in such stark terms.

In making such a statement a representation of America, our government has no concept of how weak and decadent we make ourselves look in Muslims’ eyes—and how ready for jihad conquest.

All of which brings me to a question: How SHOULD the U.S. government have responded to the “Innocence of Muslims” video, once the riots started?

I’ll have to write my own version of what a real president of a real America would have said, along the lines of my imaginary presidential address in “A Real Islam Policy for a Real America.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 22, 2012 02:16 PM | Send