Armed Libyan gunmen, followed by a mob, attacked the US Embassy in Libya in protest of a film an Egyptian campaigner was allowed to show in the US which, they say, “insulted the prophet Mohammed”. The ambassador and several of his staff were killed in the attack, according to Sky News.
I do hope America’s response will be robust and unequivocal.
Yesterday, the British TV station Channel4 had to call off a screening and discussion of a documentary produced by historian Tom Holland after credible death threats by enraged zealots who claimed the documentary “insulted the prophet Mohammed”.
The film that sparked the embassy attack in Libya – and another attack on the US Embassy in Cairo yesterday which saw the US flag burned and replaced with the Islamist’s black flag – was a 14 minute trailer for a film posted on YouTube.
Another protest – another march on the US Embassy – will be led in Cairo by, surprisingly, Egypt’s Coptic community who will denounce “all sorts of contempt or disdain against any religion” and emphasising that “the Copts who took part in the production of the film in question are not representative of mainstream Coptic patriotism… these Copts neither represent Christianity or the Church, nor the Copts of the diaspora.”
Unsurprisingly, the Copts in Egypt are terrified and this is the best defence they have against a full-scale pogrom.
Earlier, the US Embassy in Cairo had issued the following statement:
“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions,” the statement read.
I don’t think that is true. I don’t think the United States issued a statement about this segment on Brass Eye or this episode of South Park. I don’t think the US government or its ambassadors have ever condemned religious satire, criticism, or dispute involving any other religion. Perhaps it is time we condemned instead the misguided and continuing efforts of violent religious zealots to control what others think and say instead of trying to appease them.
Neil D adds:
