Anti-Muslim movie prompts protest in Egypt & Lybia
September 12, 2012: Protesters angered over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet
Muhammad fired gunshots and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city
of Benghazi, killing the US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans,
witnesses and the State Department said. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of
the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, tore and replaced the American flag with an Islamic banner.
Tuesday's
attacks were 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 protests in both countries were sparked by outrage over a film
ridiculing Muhammad produced by an American in California and being promoted by an
extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. Excerpts from
the film dubbed into Arabic were posted on YouTube.
U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed on Tuesday 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 Mohammel-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. is 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 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."
In Benghazi, a large mob stormed the U.S. consulate,
with gunmen firing their weapons, said Wanis al-Sharef, an Interior Ministry official
in Benghazi. A witness said attackers fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled
grenades at the consulate as they clashed with Libyans hired to guard the facility.
Outnumbered by the crowd, Libyan security forces did little to stop them, al-Sharef
said. The crowd overwhelmed the facility and set fire to it, burning most of it and
looting the contents, witnesses said.
One American was shot to death and a
second was wounded in the hand, al-Sharef said. He did not give further details. The
violence at the consulate lasted for about three hours, but the situation has now
quieted down, said another 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
ultraconservative 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 because of 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 down the American flag from 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 ultraconservatives around the
region. The crowd grew throughout Tuesday 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 about 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
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. The website's guidelines call for removing videos that
include a threat of violence, but not those that only express opinions. YouTube's
practice is not to comment on specific videos.
Sam Bacile, an 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 is 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 are 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."