Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Obama's New Libya Update: American and Three Others Arrested in Benghazi for Preaching Christianity

ANDREW C. MCCARTHY February 26, 2013
The latest from "moderate" Libya: Four foreign Christians, including an American with dual Swedish citizenship, have been arrested on suspicion of being missionaries who have been distributing Christian literature. They were apprehended in Benghazi, the jihadist hotbed where U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were murdered in September. The missionaries could face the death penalty under Islam's sharia law, which forbids the proselytizing of creeds other than Islam, imposes capital punishment on Muslims who convert to Christianity, and similarly discourages any speech that might sow discord among Muslims.

Ray Ibrahim picks up the story from the Guardian, quoting from an official from "Libyan security" - the outfit the Obama administration relied on after the president's unprovoked, unauthorized war to topple the Qaddafi regime placed Islamists in de facto control of much of the country:
Discussing this case, Libyan security official Hussein Bin Hmeid, trying to justify the Islamic ban on free speech, observes: "Proselytizing is forbidden in Libya. We are a 100% Muslim country and this kind of action affects our national security." Indeed, Muslim governments-most notably Iran's-constantly suppress any talk of Christianity, claiming it threatens "our national security." ...
According to Benghazi lawyer and "human rights activist" Bilal Bettamer, Christians should not offend Muslims by trying to share their faith: "It is disrespectful. If we had Christianity we could have dialogue, but you can't just spread Christianity.  The maximum penalty is the death penalty. It's a dangerous thing to do."
Of course, it bears observing that it was not just President Obama who backed Libya's Islamists in the cashiering of Qaddafi, who was then an American ally supplying what our government had described as vital intelligence about Libya's legions of anti-American terrorists. The Republican Beltway establishment also enthusiastically supported Obama's war, led by Senator John McCain, who called Benghazi's jihadists "my heroes."
Oh well, like the president said at the U.N., "The future must not belong to these who suppress the Gospel" - oh, no, wait ... looks like I may have that wrong.

This article appears at NRO.


FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor  Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, author of Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad and blogs at National Review Online's The Corner. 

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/obamas-new-libya-update-american-and-three-others-arrested-in-benghazi-for-preaching-christianity?f=must_reads#ixzz2M1H0D54w
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