"Others said that the outpouring of outrage against the video had built
up over a long period of perceived denigrations of Muslims and their
faith by the United States or its military, which are detailed
extensively in the Arab news media: the invasion of Iraq on a
discredited pretext; the images of abuse from the Abu Ghraib prison; the
burning or desecrations of the Koran by troops in Afghanistan and a
pastor in Florida; detentions without trial at Guantánamo Bay; the
denials of visas to prominent Muslim intellectuals; the deaths of Muslim
civilians as collateral damage in drone strikes; even political
campaigns against the specter of Islamic law inside the United States.
“This is not the first time that Muslim beliefs are being insulted or
Muslims humiliated,” said Emad Shahin, a political scientist at the
American University in Cairo."
