So Newsweek is apologizing for possible errors in reporting that the Quran was desecrated by interrogators at Guantanamo. That makes a nice target for right-leaning blogs who just love to take shots at the mainstream media (like me); unfortunately, in a much bigger sense, it’s far too late for an apology.

As soon as the report came out, it was guaranteed to spark outrage in Muslim communities and in the We Hate Bush leftists around the world. The charges will be repeated as fact for years to come and pointing to the apology from Newsweek will be met with disbelief. Militant Islamists in the Middle East may never even hear of the apology, and those who do will probably have the same response as the fringe left in America: the apology will be seen as irrelevant to the greater truth that these things did happen whether the acts can be corroborated or not. The apology itself and any denial of the event will be remembered as a betrayal of the Truth.

The damage was already uncontrollable as soon as the charges were leveled by a reasonably reliable source. The riots and the deaths are, unfortunately, the least of the destruction; the most is the hit to credibility with an already skeptical Middle Eastern populace who scrutinize every step the US makes almost hoping to find something to fuel their outrage.

Of course, I find their outrage to be outrageous, if you take my meaning. The hypocrisy of people who are so intolerant of other religious expressions (just consider the recent arrest of Christians in Saudi Arabia for having the temerity to actually practice and discuss their religious beliefs) threatening violence over the (quite possibly erroneous) report of the desecration of a book is outrageous. But my anger doesn’t change the fact that serious damage may have been done to the efforts of the United States to help rebuild Afghanistan (a much more religiously conservative nation than Iraq) in particular and influence events in the Middle East in the broader view.

The report didn’t kill progress and it didn’t destroy the chances for helping to build better nations in the region, but it did give anti-Western forces cover for their continued resistance to liberalizing changes.

Thanks, Newsweek.

Read an editorial from today’s Arab News.