Sir Ivor Roberts comments on the souring of the Arab Spring

Sir Ivor Roberts has written a piece for The Tablet magazine (29 September) entitled Spring turns sour, in which he examines how relations between the West and the Middle East have developed since the Arab spring, particularly in the light of the controversial film Innocence of Muslims.

Ivor writes, the insulting film is seen by many in the Muslim world as the straw breaking the camels back after a series of Western physical assaults on the Muslim world, including the invasion of Iraq on a false premise, the abuse and humiliation of Muslim prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, and the detentions without trial in Guantanamo. None of this can or must in any way condone the violence and, in particular, the death of the US ambassador in Benghazi, Chris Stevens. But it does explain why the West and the Middle East are not on the same page. Dialogue of the deaf barely begins to describe it.

The full article can be read here.