Film titled "Innocence of Muslims" reportedly
made on $5 million budget donated by "about 100 Jews" • Three U.S.
Embassy staffers also reportedly killed in riots • Protesters scale
walls of U.S. Embassy in Cairo, replace flag with Islamic banner.
Libyan officials say the U.S. ambassador and
three other embassy staffers have been killed in an attack on the U.S.
consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a
film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
The officials, three in all, say Ambassador
Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy
employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff. The protesters
were firing gunshots and rocket-propelled grenades.
The officials who reported the ambassador's
death were Deputy Interior Minister for eastern Libya Wanis al-Sharaf;
Benghazi security chief Abdel-Basit Haroun; and Benghazi city council
and security official, Ahmed Bousinia.
"The American ambassador and three staff
members were killed when gunmen fired rockets at them," a
Libyan official in Benghazi told Reuters. Asked about the deaths, a U.S.
Embassy employee in Tripoli said: "We have no information regarding
this." The employee said the embassy could confirm the death of one
person.
The Libyan official said the U.S. ambassador
had been on his way to a safer venue after protesters attacked the U.S.
Consulate in Benghazi and opened fire, killing a staff member, in
protest at a U.S. film that they deemed blasphemous to the Prophet
Muhammad.
The official said the U.S. Embassy had sent a
military plane to transport the bodies to Tripoli to fly them to the
United States.
Gunmen assaulted the Benghazi compound on
Tuesday evening, clashing with Libyan security forces, who withdrew
under heavy fire. The attackers fired at the buildings while others
threw handmade bombs into the compound, setting off small explosions.
Small fires were burning around the compound.
The assault followed a protest in neighboring
Egypt where demonstrators scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy, tore
down the American flag and burned it during a protest over the same film
which they said insulted the Prophet Muhammad.
It was the first such assaults on U.S.
diplomatic facilities in either country, at a time when both Libya and
Egypt are struggling to overcome the turmoil following the ouster of
their longtime leaders, Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak in uprisings
last year.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that
the film — titled "Innocence of Muslims" — was "directed and produced by
an Israeli-American real-estate developer who characterized it as a
political effort to call attention to the hypocrisies of Islam" adding
that the movie had also been promoted by Terry Jones, the Florida pastor
who has sparked deadly riots in the past by publicly burning copies of
the Quran.
The Wall Street Journal reported further that
the film's 52-year-old writer, director and producer, Sam Bacile, said
that he had funded the movie with $5 million in donations from "about
100 Jews" whom he declined to identify. "Islam is a cancer," the paper
quoted him as saying. "The movie is a political movie. It's not a
religious movie."
The film was also being promoted by an extreme
anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. A
14-minute trailer of the movie that sparked the protests, posted on the
website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into
Egyptian Arabic, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman
in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for
massacres.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
confirmed that one State Department officer had been killed in the
protest at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. She strongly condemned the
attack and said she had called Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif "to
coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya."
Clinton expressed concern that the protests
might spread to other countries. She said the U.S. was working with
"partner countries around the world to protect our personnel, our
missions, and American citizens worldwide."
"Some have sought to justify this vicious
behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet,"
Clinton said in a statement released by the U.S. State Department. "The
United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the
religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes
back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is
never any justification for violent acts of this kind."
The violence at the consulate lasted for about three hours, but the situation has now quieted down, said one witness.
"I heard nearly 10 explosions and all kinds of
weapons. It was a terrifying day," said the witness who refused to give
his name because he feared retribution.
Hours before the Benghazi attack, hundreds of
mainly ultra-conservative Islamist protesters in Egypt marched to the
U.S. Embassy in downtown Cairo, gathering outside its walls and chanting
against the movie and the U.S. Most of the embassy staff had left the
compound earlier thanks to early warnings of the upcoming demonstration.
"Say it, don't fear: Their ambassador must leave!" the crowd chanted.
Dozens of protesters then scaled the embassy
walls, and several went into the courtyard and took the American flag
off a pole. They brought it back to the crowd outside, which tried to
burn it, but, failing that, tore it apart.
The protesters on the wall then raised on the
flagpole a black flag with a Muslim declaration of faith, "There is no
god but God and Muhammad is his prophet." The flag, similar to the
banner used by al-Qaida, is commonly used by ultra-conservatives around
the region.
The crowd grew throughout the evening with
thousands standing outside the embassy. Dozens of riot police lined up
along the embassy walls but did not stop protesters as they continued to
climb and stand on the wall - though it appeared no more went into the
compound.
The crowd chanted, "Islamic, Islamic. The
right of our prophet will not die." Some shouted, "We are all Osama,"
referring to al-Qaida leader bin-Laden. Young men, some in masks,
sprayed graffiti on the walls. Some grumbled that Islamist President
Mohammed Morsi had not spoken out against the movie.
A group of women in black veils and robes that
left only their eyes exposed chanted "Worshippers of the Cross, leave
the Prophet Muhammad alone."
By midnight, the crowd had dwindled. The U.S.
Embassy said on its Twitter account that there will be no visa services
on Wednesday because of the protests.
A senior Egyptian security official at the
embassy area said authorities allowed the protest because it was
"peaceful." When they started climbing the walls, he said he called for
more troops, denying that the protesters stormed the embassy. He spoke
on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to
reporters.
The Cairo embassy is in a diplomatic area in
Garden City, where the British and Italian embassies are located, only a
few blocks away from Tahrir Square, the center of last year's uprising
that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The U.S. Embassy is built like a
fortress, with a wall several meters (yards) high. But security has
been scaled back in recent months, with several roadblocks leading to
the facility removed after legal court cases by residents.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry promised in a
statement to provide the necessary security for diplomatic missions and
embassies and warned that "such incidents will negatively impact the
image of stability in Egypt, which will have consequences on the life of
its citizens."
One protester, Hossam Ahmed, said he was among
those who entered the embassy compound and replaced the American flag
with the black one. He said the group has now removed the black flag
from the pole and laid it instead on a ladder on top of the wall.
"This is a very simple reaction to harming our prophet," said another, bearded young protester, Abdel-Hamid Ibrahim.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman
Victoria Nuland said Egyptian police had removed the demonstrators who
entered the embassy grounds.
Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad
in any fashion, much less in an insulting way. The 2005 publication of
12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper triggered
riots in many Muslim countries.
A YouTube spokesperson said the website would
not take down the video at this point. The website's guidelines call for
removing videos that include a threat of violence, but not those only
expressing opinions. YouTube's practice is not to comment on specific
videos.
"We take great care when we enforce our
policies and try to allow as much content as possible while ensuring
that our Community Guidelines are followed," the YouTube spokesperson
said. "Flagged content that does not violate our guidelines will remain
on the site."
Bacile, the American citizen who said he
produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, said he had not
anticipated such a furious reaction.
"I feel sorry for the embassy. I am mad," Bacile said.
Speaking from a telephone with a California
number, Bacile said he was Jewish and familiar with the region. Bacile
said the film was produced in English and he doesn't know who dubbed it
in Arabic. The full film has not been shown yet, he said, and he said he
has declined distribution offers for now.
"My plan is to make a series of 200 hours" about the same subject, he said.
Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Christian in
the U.S. known for his anti-Islam views, told The Associated Press from
Washington that he was promoting the video on his website and on certain
TV stations, which he did not identify.
Both depicted the film as showing how Coptic
Christians are oppressed in Egypt, though it goes well beyond that to
ridicule Muhammad - a reflection of their contention that Islam as a
religion is inherently oppressive.
"The main problem is I am the first one to put
on the screen someone who is [portraying] Muhammad. It makes them mad,"
Bacile said. "But we have to open the door. After 9/11 everybody should
be in front of the judge, even Jesus, even Muhammad."
For several days, Egyptian media have been
reporting on the video, playing some excerpts from it and blaming Sadek
for it, with ultraconservative clerics going on air to denounce it.
Medhat Klada, a representative of Coptic
Christian organizations in Europe, said Sadek's views were not
representative of expatriate Copts.
"He is an extremist ... We don't go down this
road. He has incited the people [in Egypt] against Copts," he said,
speaking from Switzerland. "We refuse any attacks on religions because
of a moral position."
But he said he was concerned about the backlash from
angry Islamists, saying their protest only promotes the movie. "They
don't know dialogue and they think that Islam will be offended from a
movie."
Comments: Yet in America, a country occupied with discussions, viewpoints, talking points and programs all meant to quell the evil of "bullying" what does our leadership do? They apologize for an individual who "insulted" Islam-according to the Islamists. Rather than use this as a definitive historical moment demonstrating the ideological difference between Islam and the West, it is called freedom of speech. We have laws against killing, looting, injuring those who may have an opinion different from yours.You act horribly like a bully!! Another missed opportunity to stand for our values-such is the pity!
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