'Anti-Islam' film: US buildings attacked in Egypt, Libya

[Shah-i-Kot]

http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-nti-islam-film-us-buildings-attacked-in-egypt-libya/20120912.htm

Rediff.com » News » 'Anti-Islam' film: US buildings attacked in Egypt, Libya
'Anti-Islam' film: US buildings attacked in Egypt, Libya

Last updated on: September 12, 2012 09:16 IST

Anti-US protests against an American-produced film which allegedly insults the Prophet Mohammed, took a violent turn in the Middle East as the US embassy in Cairo was attacked and its consulate at Benghazi in Libya was set on fire reportedly killing one American consular official.
US officials were however were reluctant to establish any link between the two incidents on Tuesday in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and Benghazi, the Libyan city. "We cannot confirm any connection between these incidents," a senior State Department official said in response to questions linking the two incidents.
Multiple American media outlets said that one US official had been killed in the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, which was set on fire by militant groups. This was notified to the US by the Libyan government, CNN reported.
But there was no independent confirmation of this by US officials.
However, the State Department confirmed the attack. "We can confirm that our office in Benghazi, Libya has been attacked by a group of militants," the State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, said.




"We are working with the Libyans now to secure the compound. We condemn in strongest terms this attack on our diplomatic mission," Nuland said.
Members of a radical Islamist group had been protesting at the consulate, CNN reported. The protest in Libya was against a film produced in the US, which was also the cause of angry protestors storming the American embassy in Cairo, who then tore down the American flag and replaced it with a black one.
"The black flag, which hangs atop a ladder inside the compound, is adorned with white characters that read, "There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his messenger," an emblem often used in Al Qaeda propaganda," CNN reported.
The State Department later said that the demonstrators now have been removed from the embassy compound.






"In Cairo, we can confirm that Egyptian police have now removed the demonstrators who had entered our Embassy grounds earlier today," Nuland said.
CNN reported from Egypt that several individuals claimed responsibility for organising the demonstrations, including Salafist leader Wesam Abdel-Wareth, who is president of Egypt's conservative Hekma television channel.
Mohammed al-Zawahiri -- the brother of Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri -- said that "we called for the peaceful protest joined by different Islamic factions including the Islamic Jihad, Hazem Abu Ismael movement," the news channel said.
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, Fox News reported. He said the film was produced in English and he doesn't know who dubbed it in Arabic.
"The main problem is I am the first one to put on screen someone who is (portraying) Muhammad. It makes them mad," he said in an interview. "But we have to open the door. After 9/11 everybody should be in front of the judge, even Jesus, even Muhammad," Bacile was quoted as saying.







According to Fox News, Bacile addresses the persecution of Copts in Egypt and blames the US and its allies for fighting Muslims. "The US should fight the ideology, not the people," he said.
Meanwhile, a prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation called on Muslims in the Middle East to ignore the distribution of a "trashy" anti-Islam film, clips of which are circulating online, that resulted in the attack on the American embassy in Cairo.
"We urge that this ignorant attempt to provoke the religious feelings of Muslims in the Arabic-speaking world be ignored and that its extremist producers not be given the cheap publicity they so desperately seek," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Please click NEXT to read further...


Image: People shout slogans and light flares in front of the U.S. embassy during a protest in Cairo
Photographs: Amr Dalsh/Reuters
Tags: US , Nihad Awad , Fox News , Egypt





"Those who created this trashy film do not represent the people of America or the Christian faith. The only proper response to intentional provocations such as this film is to redouble efforts to promote mutual understanding between faiths and to marginalise extremists of all stripes," he said.
"We condemn the attack on the American embassy, which had nothing to do with the production of this intentionally inflammatory film," Awad said.
Earlier in the day, Nuland said one of the things about the new Egypt is that protest is possible.
"Obviously we all want to see peaceful protest, which is not what happened outside the US mission, so we're trying to restore calm now. But I think the bigger picture is one of the United States supporting Egypt's democratic transition and the Egyptian government very much welcoming and working with us on the support that we have to offer," she told reporters at her daily news conference.


Image: People attend a rally in front of the US embassy in Cairo
Photographs: Amr Dalsh/Reuters

[Shah-i-Kot]

The film is called Innocence of Muslims. It allegedly was made by an Israeli named Sam Bacile.

[Afghanistan2010]

American killed in Libya protest over film

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press – 39 mins ago

• Enlarge PhotoAssociated Press/Mohammed Abu Zaid - Protesters destroy an American flag pulled down from the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. Egyptian protesters, largely ultra conservative Islamists,

CAIRO (AP) — 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 one American, witnesses and the State Department said. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, and 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 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. 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 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, a 56-year-old California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew and who said he produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, "Innocence of Muslims," said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction.
Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, Bacile, who went into hiding Tuesday, remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.
Bacile said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world.
"Islam is a cancer, period," he repeatedly said in a solemn, accented tone.
Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed in Benghazi, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence.
"I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good," said Bacile. "America should do something to change it."
Bacile said the film was produced in English and he doesn't know who dubbed it in Arabic. The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, 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."
___
Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Washington, Shaya Tayefe Mohajer in Los Angeles, and Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Libya, contributed to this report.

[Friend]

These little minded people provoke our sentiments and then call us with different names. Shame on their education and their so called progress.

[asad71]

These little minded people provoke our sentiments and then call us with different names. Shame on their education and their so called progress.

Many, including myself wouldn't agree to that comment. Education and progress have nothing to do with committing sacrilege and hurting others religious sentiments. At this instance, it is much more than that. The Americans and the Israelis are hated for the atrocities and genocide they keep committing against the Muslims and the Arabs.

[Afghanistan2010]

The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it.

http://news.yahoo.com/anti-islam-fil...45.html?_esi=1