Bomb Threats at UT Austin and North Dakota Rattle US

Protests have been going on for the past four days throughout the Middle East as a reaction to a cheesy and deliberately offensive anti-Muslim film. While many Americans may feel safe watching the news instead of being the news, that feeling of security and passivity may change with Friday's bomb threats. According to The Washington Post, a man who claimed to be from al-Qaeda called the University of Texas on Friday morning to say that bombs were going to go off across the Austin campus. North Dakota State University received a similar threat.

Both campuses were evacuated. No one was harmed and no bombs went off. Despite the lack of violence and mayhem, the bomb scare may send a message to Americans — pay attention! In Egypt, Yemen, the Sudan, Tunisia, and several other countries, demonstrators have been throwing rocks, chanting anti-American slogans, and targeting US embassies and the embassies of US allies, according to The New York Times. Why? Because of a poorly made film that seems to have been created by an Egyptian American, a man who may have known how to inspire rage and violence within the Muslim communities.

While all the hate and anger has been confined to Muslim countries so far, could that change? It is not clear yet who made the bomb threats. It is not clear yet when or how the unrest and anger will subside. What is clear, is that people's emotions are being manipulated. Someone made a film to make people react. People are reacting. Hopefully Americans can do their best not to be manipulated by fear, confusion, or ignorance. With classes canceled on Friday, college students from Texas and North Dakota have some extra time on their hands to learn the truth of what is going on in the world, to investigate this very crucial time in the history of man, and hopefully to do something positive and peaceful about it.

Join the Conversation	You are following this conversation | stop following follow this conversation by email