EA Special: Mitt Romney's "Deviant" Politics, a Slain Ambassador, and the Death of American Objectivity

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There are legitimate reasons to question the administration on many issues, including foreign policy. There are looming questions, like whether drone strikes in Yemen have made us safer, whether there should be intervention in Syria, or how the US can stop Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu from pre-emptively striking Iran and dragging us into a war that our military commanders do not want to fight. There are questions about Pakistan and Afghanistan, China and Mexico, Bahrain and Egypt and Libya. But we're not discussing these because, rather than confront President Obama within the sphere of legitimate controversy, Romney and the GOP have resorted to pulling our entire political dialogue into the sphere of deviance.

This has dangerous implications for American politics. And the media has played an important role in the downward spiral. Terrible daily coverage of the Middle East has led to sensational coverage of events that are more drama than substance. At the same time, a fear of confronting deviance has lent legitimacy to questions that are not legitimate. Those wishing to exploit the media's fear of perceived bias have poisoned the well of public discourse, and the media has distributed the water because, well, they think that it is their job.

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MENA Opinion: Time for Muslims to Manage Their Anger (Akyol)

Peaceful protest in Istanbul over the US film "The Innocence of Muslims"

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Opinion leaders throughout the Muslim world need to establish principles as to how to counter the insulting of Islam in civilized ways. They can, for example, focus on the Quranic verse that says that when they face people who mock Islam, Muslims should only “not sit with them”....In light of that verse, modern-day Muslims can counter Islamophobia not by violence or censorship, but with arguments and boycotts. 

After all, no matter what we do, we Muslims cannot control what other people will say about Islam. We can only control the way we react to them.

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