KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - Violence over an obscure, 14-minute video clip that criticizes Muhammad and Islam and was posted on You Tube about six weeks ago continues to escalate throughout the Muslim world and in some Western countries. On Friday, major demonstrations in Pakistan turned violent. And there is no end in sight. This administration's response has failed to contain it. As we watch the violence escalate, we might wonder why President Obama has responded the way he has?

This past week, demonstrations sprang up throughout the Muslim world and beyond. Protesters converged on Kabul, in Afghanistan and in Tehran, Iran's capital city, and in Kashmir, Tunisia and Morocco. In Iraq, about 3,000 protesters took to the streets in the southern city of Basra to condemn the video and the caricatures of Muhammad in a French magazine. Some chanted "Death to America." Thousands gathered in Lebanon's Bekaa valley. In Zaria, located in northern Nigeria, thousands of Muslim demonstrators burned Israeli and American flags. This type of thing was quite common.

In the Sri Lanka capital of Colombo, about 2,000 Muslims burned effigies of President Obama and American flags at a protest after Friday prayers. According to one report, about 10,000 people marched through the streets of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. They burned a makeshift coffin draped in an American flag and an effigy of Obama. They also burned a French flag to protest the publication of the caricatures of Muhammad. There were even protests in Malaysia and Indonesia, where Obama spent part of his childhood. Demonstrations also occurred in Australia, Germany, and England.

Relations have soured dramatically between Pakistan and the United States under President Obama's leadership. As a result, the anger of the Pakistani people spilled out onto the streets in week-long protests. In an apparent attempt to constructively channel this anger, the Pakistani government declared Friday to be a national holiday, "Love the Prophet Day." It was meant to be a time when the people could peacefully demonstrate against the United States and against the West in general. However, it turned violent. About 17 people were killed, and at least 55 people have been injured in clashes with the police.

Tens of thousands of Pakistanis took to the streets across the country. Thousands showed up outside the American embassy in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. They also burned an effigy of President Obama. Demonstrators damaged government buildings and clashed with police in the city of Nowshera. Tens of thousands of protesters showed up in Peshawar. The chamber of commerce and a couple cinemas were set on fire and shops and vehicles were damaged. In the seaport of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, there were about 15,000 protestors. They burned six cinemas, two banks, a KFC and five police vehicles. About 10 of the dead were from Karachi.

The first indication of this administration's response was an official statement put out by the U.S. embassy in Cairo in anticipation of the demonstrations which led to the actual attacks on the embassies in Egypt and Libya. The statement is as follows: "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims - as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. . . . Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."

Although President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's initial response after the attacks on our embassies condemned the attacks, they reserved their strongest language for the video. Daren Jonescu explains this in his September 15, 2012 article, "Romney Gets It Right: It Was Disgraceful," published by the American Thinker. "The strongest word the President and the Secretary of State used in their official response was "deplorable" -- and this word was used not to describe the unprovoked murder and public humiliation of Ambassador Stevens -- which is judged merely objectionable, unjustified, and senseless . . . but rather to describe the denigration of Islam in a movie."

It does not seem that their response has changed much. In an effort to soften the anger of the Pakistani people, the administration, through its U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, apparently flooded Pakistani television throughout the day on Thursday with an ad in anticipation of the "Love the Prophet Day" protests. The ad features President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denouncing the video.  

In the ad, President Obama says, "Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We ...