Protests Stir Fears for Arab Spring LONDON - While Americans were mourning the death of their ambassador to Libya and three of his embassy staff, many in the Middle East were lamenting the latest blow to their hopes for the so-called Arab Spring. Fresh protests flared outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo overnight by Egyptian demonstrators apparently unchastened by the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and his three colleagues in neighboring Libya. Other outbreaks of unrest, sparked by an obscure Internet video that was conceived to provoke Muslims, were reported across the Arab world, from Morocco to Yemen. In Libya itself, however, people turned out to express their sorrow and regrets about a terrorist act they insisted did not represent their country or Islam. They carried banners denouncing both violence and insults to Islam. The prospect of widening anti-American protest nevertheless prompted fears of a setback to the region's democratization process and its relationship with the West. Ashraf Khalil, a Cairo-based journalist, assessing the repercussions of the violence in Benghazi, wrote on Thursday, "The plausible worst-case scenario is that this becomes, for many Americans, a referendum and negative judgment on the Arab Spring." Mr. Khalil, a chronicler of the Egyptian revolution, wrote in Abu Dhabi's The National that events in Syria could dampen enthusiasm for further intervention in the Syrian conflict. "Given how things seem to be going in Libya, what is the point of helping to liberate a people who might turn on you within a year?" he asked. A widespread theme in the Arab reaction was that extremists on both sides were responsible for the latest crisis. As The National headlined Mr. Khalil's report: "U.S. ambassador's death: first blood to the bigots on both sides." Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, writing in the same newspaper, said, "Governments both in the Arab world and the United States need to work quickly to prevent this crisis from escalating." "Eleven years ago, Osama bin Laden succeeded in setting the course of Western-Muslim relations since," he wrote, referring to the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001. Let us hope that the militants of Benghazi - who represent only a minority of Libyans - do not end up dictating the course of Western-Muslim relations for years to come. Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president, walking a fine line between placating his angry Islamic constituency and preserving his ties with the United States, condemned Tuesday's violence and the offending film that sparked the protests. By an accident of timing, he made his statement on Thursday during a visit to the European Union headquarters in Brussels that underlined his government's desire to bolster relations with Europe. It was not only secularists who spearheaded the region's popular revolutions who were lamenting the latest turn of events. Egypt's leaders are trying to channel unrest into peaceful protests at mosques on Friday rather that potentially violent confrontations in front of foreign missions. Senior clerics at Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque, a regional center of Islamic learning, also called for wisdom and reason in confronting any perceived offense to Islam. A panel headed by Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayeb, said reactions to the video "should clarify Islamic facts and avoid blaming the innocent for the deeds of the guilty." Emad El Din Adeeb, an Egyptian writing in the Arabic Daily As-Sharq Al-Awsat before the full extent of Tuesday's violence was known, said, "We alone, not others, have the responsibility to improve the negative mental stereotype about us."