Despite the Pope's somewhat apologetic statement, the Muslim world is still protesting against his comments on Islam. While leaders in the region might be mobilizing the public because of the perception of insult, they might also be doing themselves a disservice.
Ultimately protesting is a commodity, in terms of its force as a message to the world. Like other commodities the more it is used the less value it has.
If the Muslim and the Arab worlds continue to be mobilized to protest on every small issue, those protests will continue to lose meaning and value. To put it simply, the more this happens, the less people will take the protests seriously.
Reactions to the current protests in the West range from sympathy with Muslim/Arab protestors to disdain. Some go so far as to say that the protests prove that Islam is an unreasonable religion and that the Arab region is essentially uncivil.
The people who proliferate this idea are not of concern to me for they are sufficiently displaying their own intellectual extremism and are unswayable.
My concern is that even the liberal and more tolerant segments are becoming less sympathetic and more numbed to what they perceive as the continued protests of a hypersensitive Muslim and Arab worlds.
The protests, and especially the actions of a few who burned churches among other violent reactions, will not win any hearts or minds in the West, but will have the contrary effect.
As an Arab Muslim I do think that we are hypersensitive. If someone says something offensive or in our view wrong, why can't we accept that and just move on? Why can't we accept that they are entitled to their opinion even if it is wrong? Even if we think it is inflammatory, why do we fail to seize the moral ground and instead somehow manage to produce the opposite perception?
The issue is not whether the Pope's speech was offensive or not, but whether the response was counterproductive. Additionally, it is not the people who are protesting who are at fault, but the media and other "influentials" who keep harping on the clash of civilizations who are really doing everyone a disservice.
Populations in the Muslim world live under continued economic, social, and political stress anyhow, which makes for easily agitated populations. Media gatekeepers and others in influential positions should know better than to manipulate them.
This concern is not restricted to Muslim commentators, for one cannot escape the commentators on CNN and FOX who use the argument that the unfortunate killing of the Italian nun or the burning of the churches proves that the Muslim religion is irrational and inherently violent, while reminding their viewers that there is indeed a clash between the civil and rational Western civilization and the irrational ways of the Muslims.
In the end the protests are not going to lead to anything and this by default is a negative result for the Muslim world because whenever there is a great mobilization that culminates in nothing, it indicates the powerlessness of the mobilized.
So what is the solution one may ask if one feels offended by the statements of the Pope? Well, how about a little statement sent to news agencies signed by various relevant high level institutions that explains that the speech was offensive to Muslim sensibilities and lays out exactly the reason why it was.
Or, how about sending a delegation to meet the Pope to discuss those remarks, and trying to attract the media to this meeting.
Perhaps the best response would have been not to make a big deal of the issue particularly when making such a big deal will not benefit anyone, but rather creates an environment that empowers extremists on both sides.
Commentary: Less is more
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