What triggers a cataclysmic or a world-changing event? The much-heralded “Arab Spring” which began in December 2010, was a result of the first protests that erupted in Tunisia following a vegetable vendor’s self-immolation protesting police corruption.

The current wave of anti-US violence across Egypt, Yemen and Libya are the result of a film posted online called ‘Innocence of Muslims’ by an obscure but radical American filmmaker who is now in hiding. A senior American diplomat, Christopher Stevens, has been killed in Libya. The violence has spread to various other embassies, which has led the Americans to put even the Berlin mission on red alert.