Among the stranger things is to get are these angry emails from professional Iranians living in the West, usually working in American universities, using postmodern lingo to deplore the “cultural bias” of the 300 (cf. the Mr. Clean-like over-the-top Xerxes strutting with his lisp and body piercings). Often their arguments dovetail with those of Ahmadinejad, and one wonders why they don’t simply move back and foster needed reforms in their homeland, given their anger at both the West and the theocracy?

I used to remind these oh-so-serious professors that the movie is based on a Frank Miller comic book, etc., and to get a grip and calm down. But now I ask them why is it that such fierce nationalists are always living in the West rather than in Iran, and why are Iran’s universities not likewise full of Americans eager to enjoy the multicultural experience? And why do Westerners not care too much how we are caricatured in Iranian and Turkish films? And why do Western newswomen wear head garb in Islamic countries while their Islamic counterparts do the same while as guests reporting from the secular West?

The asymmetry ranges from the trivial to the profound (e.g., mosques rising in the U.S., churches banned in Saudi Arabia), but reflects this ongoing and insidious hypocrisy of the Middle East that fundamentally is based on insecurity–and a hunch that Westerners don’t really care to defend their own values.