As the uprisings spread against U.S. interests in the Middle East, the reasons behind the protest seem to vary, depending on which expert is offering their opinion.
The rioting at a U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday left four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, dead.
Dr. Mustansir Mir, director of Youngstown State University's Center for Islamic Studies, said he believes the differences between the Middle East and the west involve deep misunderstandings of each other.
He said stories of a little-known online documentary that ridicules the prophet Muhammad may seem insignificant to people in this country, but it's provoked widespread outrage among Muslims against Americans, who they blame for supporting the film.
"There's a saying in the Islamic world that you can say bad things about God, but not about Muhammad. Muhammad is sacred in a way that very few people in the Western world understand or appreciate," Dr. Mir said. "People tend to think that the American government is behind it, American society is behind it and the West is behind it, and so the reaction is sometimes very harsh and violent."
However, YSU political science professor Keith Lepak said he's convinced the demonstrations are the work of Al Qaeda and are in retaliation for, among other things, recent drone missile strikes in Libya that killed civilians, timed to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11.
Lepak said the U.S. and its allies need to move carefully in the wake of this week's Embassy attacks, thinking the wrong steps could lead to even more violence.
And while Dr. Mir thinks this week's violence will subside, Lepak sees the situation getting potentially worse, depending on how the U.S. and its allies continue to react, and how well American leaders are able to work with the relatively new governments taking over in the region as part of what many refer to as the Arab Spring.