As U.S. Embassies Burn

As "The Book of Mormon" is set to open in Los Angeles while the coals still glow from recent burnings of American embassies and consulates in the Islamic world, I refer our readers to a post on The Hedgehog Blog back on April 3, 2011, entitled, "Why 'The Book of Mormon' is a Broadway Hit But No One is Staging 'The Koran'." Well someone did stage "The Koran," with predictable results.

The Hedgehog's observations:

1. Islamist crazies will be Islamist crazies. The real issue is the failure of governments in Egypt, Libya, and Tunesia to protect U.S. diplomats, embassies and consulates. That failure resulted from the weakness of those governments and not--at least in the case of Libya or Tunesia--bad intentions. The real question is whether Islamist governments can control their own radical Islamist movements.

2. Some moderate Islamic voices were actually raised in condemnation of the attacks. That is progress, although at a tragic, terrible cost.

3. It is astonishing that the calls to ban an anti-Muslim movie or criminalize publications critical of Islam come from the very sources that do not hesitate to scurriously attack Judaism and Christianity. Egyptian television does not hesitate to broadcast television series based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and claims of Jewish murder of Arab children in order to drink their blood. Mullahs trumpet such libels in their Friday sermons. But if someone attacks their religion, heaven help them.

Update 9/20/2012:

In today's Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens expresses nearly the same thoughts I did in the above post, and my April 3, 2011 piece, on "The Book of Mormon.  Of course, he writes better than I do.  I have been a fan of Mr. Stephens since he was editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post.  I don't mind at all that he apparently reads The Hedgehog Blog to get ideas for his columns.