The insult that backfired

TEHRAN, Sept. 24 (MNA) -- Ever since he entered the White House in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama has made serious efforts to improve the United States’ image in the Muslim world. Obama’s famous and historic addresses to Muslims in Cairo, Indonesia, and Turkey were all meant to enhance the country’s image, which was badly tarnished during the George W. Bush era. After four years, the policy is still regarded as one of the main components of Obama’s reelection campaign. However, the policy adopted by Washington for dealing with political developments in the Arab world clearly revealed the dubious nature of the United States’ alleged support for democracy and independent nations’ right to self-determination. On the one hand, the U.S. did its best to protect puppet regimes in order to maintain its interests in the region. But on the other hand, it also tried to give the impression that it respects the revolutions of the Arab world since they represent the popular determination for change in the political structure of Arab countries. “The Innocence of Muslims”, an amateurish film funded and produced by a Zionist based in Southern California, sparked massive protests across the Islamic world over the past two weeks. Observers say the movie shows how the U.S. wants to deal with Islam and its rising influence in the world. The insult was another part of the general Islamophobia campaign of the U.S., which incessantly targets the sanctities of Muslims in order to paint a distorted picture of the great divine religion in the West. The U.S. government also did not give an acceptable response to the film, and instead, Obama criticized the angry protestors in Islamic countries and described their reactions as disproportionate. Such a stance quite obviously reminds us of the Israelis and their position toward Muslims. The vigilance and alertness of Muslims in various countries and the huge demonstrations they have held to protest against the movie showed the futility of the U.S. policy to manipulate and control the Arab Spring. The U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed in Benghazi, a city which has been repeatedly used by the Western media as a model for the Syrian rebellion against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. In other words, the recent protests showed that the United States’ position in the Arab world is very shaky. In reality, the Islamophobia campaign of the U.S., which was once regarded as an efficient tool for countering the rising influence of Islam, has now backfired. It is not helping the United States’ soft war against Islam, and the masses in the Muslim world are becoming increasingly aware of the U.S. conspiracies targeting their countries. This is a great victory for the Islamic Awakening movement that will have a lasting effect on the political structure of the Muslim world in the near future. Mohammad Jamshidi is the director of the Foreign Policy Department of the Research Center of the Iranian parliament. (By Mohammad Jamshidi)