That Disturbing Video

The video produced that has now incited riots and deaths in the Middle East emerges from our belief in the freedom of speech, though hate speech or speech designed to inflame will always be challenged in our context. I have not watched the video but I have been reading some on the issues, and I found this piece by Omid Safi to be insightful.

I was unaware of the murkiness of the persons at work behind the video, including almost certainly some names not connected to real people. I regret Safi made a deal of the producer being Coptic because that just inflames another set of issues. That “Sam Bacile” claimed to be connected to Israel and to American Jews is almost certainly an attempt to poison the Middle East tensions.

AP has a report on the so-called “Sam Bacile” character.