Reactions to Innocence of Muslims

Not to be confused with September 11 attacks.

September 11 2012 U.S. diplomatic missions attacks
Location	Cairo, Egypt Benghazi, Libya
Date	11 September 2012
Attack type	Raid (Egypt) RPGs (Libya)
Weapons	? (Egypt) RPG (Libya)
Deaths	4
Injured	2
Perpetrators	Salafists and ultras (Egypt) Islamic Law Supporters (Libya)

In Egypt and Libya, people attacked the U.S. embassy and consulate, respectively, during protests against the film Innocence of Muslims that was deemed to have hurt Muslim sentiments for desecrating the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In Cairo, Egypt, the group scaled the embassy wall and tore down the flag of the United States of America and replaced it with a black Islamist flag. In Benghazi, Libya, rocket-propelled grenades fired at the consulate from a nearby farm resulted in the deaths of the visiting U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, two US Marines, an additional unknown staff member and injuries to two others.

Background

As part of the Arab Spring, protests led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution that toppled the government of Hosni Mubarak. Amid the uncertainty of a new government there was also an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Egypt in 2011. Similarly, protests in Libya, which started in Benghazi, led to the Libyan civil war that ousted the government of Muammar Gaddafi. Unlike in Egypt, however, the institutional structures of state in Libya were effectively abolished with a power vaccuum that resulted in numerous attacks in and around the country amidst general lawlessness.

The protests in both Egypt and Libya were triggered by a two-hour film Innocence of Muslims by Israeli-American filmmaker Sam Bacile, which, according to The Daily Telegraph, depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad as an advocate of paedophilia and homosexuality, showing him having sex. It was also promoted by Coptic Egyptian Morris Sadek, who had his Egyptian citizenship revoked earlier for promoting calls for an attack on Egypt. According to Bacile, the movie was produced in English, but he did not know who dubbed it in Arabic. He also said that the movie was intended to help Israel by exposing Islam's flaws and that his "plan is to make a series of 200 hours" on the same subject. Though the film had not been shown in its entirety, Bacile also said he had declined distribution offers for the time being. The film cost US$5m to make, which was financed by over 100 Jewish donors, according to Bacile. Sadek also said he had promoted the movie on his website and television stations which he did not name.

Attacks

Egypt

Almost 3,000 Salafist demonstrators and ultras protested at the embassy. A dozen men were then reported to have scaled the embassy walls, after which one of them tore down the flag of the United States of America and instead put up a black Islamist flag with the inscription of the shahada: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God." Some of the protesters also scrawled the words "There is no God but God" on the compound walls. Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros said that they demanded the film be taken "out of circulation" and that some of the protesters, many of whom were Salafists, would stay at the site until that happens. Thousands of Egyptian riot police were at the embassy following the breach of the walls. In the end, they intervened without force and managed to persuade the trespassers to come out of the compound. After that only a few hundred protesters remained outside the compound.

Libya

Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the Benghazi attack

A few hours after the Cairo incident, an armed mob converged on the consulate in Benghazi in the evening. RPGs were then reportedly fired from a nearby farm, which caused the consulate building to be engulfed in flames. The U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was on a visit to the city at the time, died either as a result of smoke inhalation or when a mortar hit a car he tried to escape in. At the same time, two U.S. Marine Corps personnel who were accompanying him also died along with another consulate employee of unknown nationality, while two consulate staff were wounded. The corpses were then taken to Benina International Airport and flown to the capital, Tripoli and scheduled to fly to a U.S. airbase in Germany. Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, the spokesman for the Supreme Security Committee, said: "One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes. There are fierce clashes between the Libyan army and an armed militia outside the US consulate," while adding that roads leading to the compound were sealed off and Libyan state security forces had surrounded the building.

Reactions

Bacile spoke to the Associated Press from an undisclosed location, that he had not changed his stance that Islam is "a cancer" and that the film was intended to be a provocative political statement. However, he added that he had not anticipated such a reaction and said: "I feel sorry for the embassy. I am mad."

Egyptian activist Wael Ghoneim wrote on his Facebook page that "attacking the US embassy on September 11 and raising flags linked to al-Qaeda will not be understood by the American public as a protest over the film about the prophet. Instead, it will be received as a celebration of the crime that took place on September 11."

• United States of America - Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said: "Some have sought to justify this vicious behaviour as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."

An unnamed state department official said in reaction to speculation that the U.S. flag was replaced by Al Qaeda's flag that "we had some people breach the wall, take the flag down and replace it. What I heard was that it was replaced with a plain black flag. But I may be not be correct in that." Another unnamed "senior" state department official said: "In Cairo, we can confirm that Egyptian police have now removed the demonstrators who had entered our embassy grounds earlier today," though he said that a connection with the Libyan incident could not be affirmed.

The embassy in Cairo issued a statement that condemned "the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims, as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions."

• • As part of the campaign for the upcoming election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney said of his opponent, President Barack Obama's, reaction: "I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathise with those who waged the attacks." Obama's campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt then said: "We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack." Politico later quoted an unnamed Obama administration official as saying that the previously posted embassy statement "was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government." The AFP interpreted Romney's comment on foreign policy issues, after previously sticking to economic issues, as "renew[ing] an older line of attack in which [Romney] accused Obama of apologising to the world for America's foreign policy."

See also

• Adolph Dubs, the last U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty before Stevens.

External links

• "Official Webpage - United States embassy Libya"
• "Official Webpage - United States embassy in Egypt"