American Consulate Officer Killed, Libya

[Greenline]

 

An American staff member of the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi has died following fierce clashes at the compound, Libyan security sources said.

 

An armed mob attacked and set fire to the building in a protest against an amateur film deemed offensive to Islam's Prophet Muhammad, after similar protests in Egypt's capital.

 

"One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes," Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee, said on Wednesday, adding that rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the building from a nearby farm.

 

"There are fierce clashes between the Libyan army and an armed militia outside the US consulate," he said. He also said roads had been closed off and security forces were surrounding the building.

 

Just hours earlier on Tuesday, thousands of Egyptian demonstrators apparently angry over the same film - a video produced by expatriate members of Egypt's Coptic community resident in the US - tore down the Stars and Stripes at the US embassy in Cairo and replaced it with a black Islamic flag.

 

The two incidents came on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.

 

"Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet," said a statement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also confirmed the death of the consulate employee.

 

"The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others," she said.

 

Suleiman El-Dressi, Al Jazeera's producer in Benghazi, said, "A group of people calling themselves the 'Islamic law supporters' heard the news that there will be an American movie insulting the Prophet."

 

"One they heard this, they came out of their military garrison and went into the streets calling upon people to gather and go ahead to attack the American consulate in Benghazi.

 

Cairo incident

 

In the day's first such incident, nearly 3,000 demonstrators, most of them Islamist supporters of the Salafist movement or football fans, gathered at the US embassy in Cairo in protest against the amateur film.

 

A dozen men scaled the embassy walls and one of them tore down the US flag, replacing it with a black one inscribed with the Muslim profession of faith: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God."

 

Demonstrators also scrawled the first part of the statement - "There is no God but God" - on the walls of the embassy compound.

 

Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from outside the US embassy in Cairo, said that the protesters want the film – portions of which can be found online - "out of circulation".

 

 

 

"Most of the people I've spoken to here, a lot of them from the ultra-conservative Salafi movement, say that they've seen the trailer to this film and that they're here outside the American embassy to stay until the film is pulled," she said.

 

"There's also a situation with the police, where there are thousands of riot police guarding the American embassy because there of the breach earlier on, when a lot of people stormed into the inner wall of the embassy and put a black flag up."

 

Egyptian police intervened without resorting to force and persuaded the trespassers to come down.

 

The crowd then largely dispersed, leaving just a few hundred protesters outside the US mission.

 

Embassy reaction

 

When asked whether the flag the protesters hoisted an al-Qaeda flag - on the anniversary of the killing of nearly 3,000 people in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania - a US state department official said she thought not.

 

"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," she said.

 

"In Cairo, we can confirm that Egyptian police have now removed the demonstrators who had entered our embassy grounds earlier today," said a senior State Department official, who added that he could not confirm any connection with the incident in Libya.

 

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," he said.

 

Americans on Tuesday marked the 11th anniversary of the September 11, attacks in which nearly thousands were killed when hijacked airliners crashed into the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center, and another was brought down in Pennsylvania.

 

'Sorry for the embassy'

 

Sam Bacile, an American citizen who 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, he 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 Copt in the US known for his anti-Islam views, told the AP news agency from Washington that he had promoted the video on his website and on certain TV stations, which he did not identify.

 

Source.

 

Wow. All this over a movie that the embassy had nothing to do with.

 

It seems like the man killed in Benghazi was a SomethingAwful moderator.

 

May he Rest in Peace and his family be given strength.

 

All the best to those who have been injured.

 

EDIT: The man killed in Libya was in fact the Ambassador.

 

EDIT: The President is send 50 marines to secure the embassy.

 

EDIT: Here is the link to the SA forums about the death of the US Ambassador to Libya.

 

EDIT: Here is the link to an interview with a friend of Vile Rat (The Ambassador).

Edited September 12, 2012 by Greenline

[Oddsock]

1. What movie is this? I've never heard of it until now and we don't even have a title for it?

 

2. "Religion of peace" indeed.

[Greenline]

1. What movie is this? I've never heard of it until now and we don't even have a title for it?

I've never heard of it either.

 

Regardless, all the best to those who have been injured.

[E.A.B.]

2. "Religion of peace" indeed.

Remember when you said that stupid sh*t? Just now?

 

That's harsh. Anyway, the great thing about religion is that people can just say 'you know, f*ck that one part of the bible'. I'm not supposed to masturbate, but, hey, f*ck it. That's the Catholic Church's stance, too.

 

I'm not religious, but just pointing out the case. It isn't that Islam is necessarily violent. Hell, I'm pretty sure Christianity and practically all religions have a level of violence in them that most people don't realize. It's that the interpretation is hinging on the violent.

 

Anyway, SA moderator? God dayum.

[na89340qv0n34b09q340]

Here's the SA thread if anyone's too lazy to find it, but f*ck that place. Here

 

[lil weasel]

Just a check.

How long has it been since the U.K. ceased arresting people for making fun of Christ?

How many other Christian states/governments have or had laws 'protecting' Christ active within the last 100 years?

[Creed Bratton]

Bunch of primitive morons. I don't really give a f*ck about what happens with those people now. If they refuse to be educated and civilized then build a f*ckin' fence around them and let them kill each other over that stupid sh*t. Don't even bring them rations. Let them figure it out. They're more than happy to accept foreign aid, but look at what they're prepared to do over something so f*ckin' stupid.

Edited September 12, 2012 by GTAvanja

[Gtaghost22]

 

2. "Religion of peace" indeed.

I can say the same about Christianity/Judaism, you know?

 

I haven't watched the movie and i don't plan to, but from what i heard it's a movie about the "sex life" of Mohammad (basically they mock him in the movie), i don't agree one bit with what they did but why insult thier prophet for no reason? Just leave them alone for f*ck sake, i don't give a f*ck if it's silly or not, just don't do it if it offends them.

 

If they refuse to be educated and civilized then build a f*ckin' fence around them and let them kill each other overthat stupid sh*t

No offence, but who are you (your country i mean) to even think about doing that? Get off your high horse please..

Edited September 12, 2012 by Gtaghost22

[Dingdongs]

They killed the actual ambassador apparently; not even a regular consul member but the full out US Ambassador to Libya..

[Bellic 4 life]

Apparently the movie was by Terry Jones, the infamous Q'uran burning Pastor. Yikes.

[EscoLehGo]

I saw on cnn one of the Muslim clerics over there was like "well how would Americans react if Abraham Lincoln or a prominent Christian figure was mocked?". There was a terrible movie made recently depicting Lincoln as a vampire killer and Jesus is regularly mocked on shows like South Park and Family Guy. The answer is we wouldn't give a sh*t

[Captain VXR]

However how would a Ugandan Christian fundamentalist react? Probably similarly to the retarded Libyan mob. Besides I don't see American, Canadian, British, French, German etc etc Muslims killing ambassadors. RIP to the Ambassador, and here's hoping that the murderers are caught and dealt with in whatever manner the Libyan legal system sees fit.

 

Let's not derail this thread into 'my woo is better than your woo' please. Just remember that there's over 1 billion Muslims and the absolute vast majority of them had nothing to do with the mob.

[sivispacem]

Obama has just confirmed that it was indeed the ambassador killed.

[Robinski]

Such a shame, he was a great mod in SA's D&D and from what I gathered there, pretty good at his job and doing important work. It's crazy when you see something like this playing out on the global stage and on stuff like message boards simultaneously.

 

E: Welp, Ambassador and three others dead too. sh*t's going to go down.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Robinski

[Doc Rikowski]

Well, this is the result of the Libyan war. The west handed the power to extremists.

I doubt this could have ever happened under Gaddafi.

I can see a bit of karma in action...

The pic of the dead ambassador dragged on the floor looks just like the Gaddafi's one.

Sorry, harsh but true.

 

 

sh*t's going to go down.

 

 

Nothing's going down. Don't forget that the Libyan government is "friend" of the West now.

[Mike Tequeli]

I hate the double standard when it comes to anything perceived as insulting to Muhammad. It seems like people who have lived their whole lives under authoritarian dictatorship don't understand that some random person in America making an Islamophobic movie does not mean the government in any way endorsed the movie. I mean how f*cking thick are these people?

[Captain VXR]

Arab equivalent of Rednecks.

[The__Phoenix]

I hate the double standard when it comes to anything perceived as insulting to Muhammad.

Indeed.

 

@Mike Tequeli; I mean how f*cking thick are these people?

 

You can get an idea after read this news.These people are lunatics, fundamentalists with who you can´t argue since they refuse argumentation´s principles.

 

It´s worthless try to understand these people,because they think in 0 or 1 terms, or you adores to Muhammad or you hates to Muhammad.

If the first, all it´s OK, if the second, they are going to try to finished with you.USA can´t make nothing in a civilized way in these countries.

[leaflinks]

Also The_mittani gamer was killed, he was in the Embassy too.

[Oddsock]

2. "Religion of peace" indeed.

Remember when you said that stupid sh*t? Just now?

 

That's harsh. Anyway, the great thing about religion is that people can just say 'you know, f*ck that one part of the bible'. I'm not supposed to masturbate, but, hey, f*ck it. That's the Catholic Church's stance, too.

 

I'm not religious, but just pointing out the case. It isn't that Islam is necessarily violent. Hell, I'm pretty sure Christianity and practically all religions have a level of violence in them that most people don't realize. It's that the interpretation is hinging on the violent.

 

Anyway, SA moderator? God dayum.

Time for me to come after you. I was hoping nobody would be uneducated enough about the tenets of Islam to argue against me.

 

Whether you like it or not, Islam is not a religion of peace. Several times in the Quran, mass violence is sanctioned by Allah so the Prophet Mohammed can kill nonbelievers. Sharia law is very corporeal in its punishment and is supposedly handed directly down from Allah. It also includes strict segregations of the sexes, races, and religions. Leaving Islam is a crime that is punishable by death.

 

And now, you see Islam as the only religion that threatens physical violence for actions perceived to be against it, such as producing images of Mohammed. Dude, I could draw Jesus getting f*cked by two big gay guys and have it aired as a story on national TV and the most I would get is maybe a few death threats from a bunch of illiterate hicks. Beyond that, no mob would show up at my house. Our embassies in or around the Vatican City and other religious countries would be safe.

 

Islam is not a religion of peace. But then again, as someone brought up, we could say the same of Christianity and Judaism, which I agree with. They are also religions of inclusion and discrimination. I'm not sure exactly why Islam seems to suffer from so much violent opinion, but nobody can safely argue that Islam is a peaceful religion, because even in its scripture it sanctions the actions of the people who killed those innocent American diplomats.

[Typhus]

This is the kind of worrying reality we're dealing with now. It's all well and good getting rid of tyrants like Mubarak and Gaddafi, but once they're gone it's often the case that new tyrants try to fill the void or that the populace itself begins to lose all constraint and attack any convenient scapegoat.

This has happened in Libya, with tribes fighting tribes now that they no longer have the Gaddafi regime to unite them. Apparently they've taken to torturing and killing any supposed 'loyalists' of the old regime as well.

It looks like the sad truth is that despite pumping millions into helping them depose a dictator, he has most likely been replaced by several different dictators who are all just as bad as he was.

 

This kind of chaos is what happens when people who have been held under a boot heel are suddenly given liberty, they have no idea of how to use it responsibly.

 

[EgyptianStar]

Condolences to the Three Familes that lost loved ones for no reason. And that note perhaps its time we stop funding armed groups in any uprising or resistance movement seems it always comes back to harm Americans. Also lets stop foreign aid to everybody. Also the filmmaker was seeking this type of response why else would you make an inflammentory film. He should have known the tension this creates. And these protest were largely peaceful until criminal thugs joined in. Criminals never leave a moment to great havoc or destruction.

 

[The__Phoenix]

 

2. "Religion of peace" indeed.

I'm not religious, but just pointing out the case. It isn't that Islam is necessarily violent. Hell, I'm pretty sure Christianity and practically all religions have a level of violence in them that most people don't realize. It's that the interpretation is hinging on the violent.

 

 

Really?It isn't that Islam is necessarily violent? Sure, is not violent at all.

 

20 days ago;

A Christian girl with Down syndrome could be punished by death in Pakistan after she was spotted holding burned pages of Islamic text in public, activists and police say.

 

The girl, identified by police as Rimsha, was arrested on blasphemy charges and is being detained in Islamabad ahead of a court appearance before the end of the month, AFP reports.

 

Defaming Islam, the Koran or the Prophet Muhammed is a capital offense in Pakistan

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/1...ing-allegations

 

LAHORE, Pakistan, November 13 (CDN) — Attorneys for a Christian mother of five sentenced to death by hanging for allegedly speaking ill of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, have filed an appeal of the verdict, they said.

 

Additional District and Sessions Judge Naveed Ahmed Chaudhary of Nankana Sahib district delivered the verdict under Pakistan’s controversial “blasphemy” statute, the kind of law that a resolution before the United Nations condemning “defamation of religions” would make legitimate internationally.

 

 

Here you have your proofs, as you can see Islamism is not violent.And Like these news you can find hundreds.

The fact is Christians in Islamic world have been facing severe persecution since years and probably will continue in the future.

 

Does Christianity acts this way? No.

The Muslim are persecuted for practice their religion in Western territories? No.

 

 

 

Christianity and practically all religions have a level of violence in them that most people don't realize?

 

Really?Give me a proof.

What's that?Imo that's a fallacy that cowards use to not face the fact that they don´t have the courage to use the same moral to measure all religions, because is easy and safe say "f*ck you christians".Why? Because christians don´t kill you for burning one holy bible.

What you say is not an argument,that´s a prejudice born from the purest cowardice

Edited September 12, 2012 by bud23

[OchyGTA]

I watched a 2 minute clip of that movie on YouTube and I have to say, it was the biggest piece of crap I've ever seen. I'm all for being tolerant of other people's beliefs but I have to admit, Muslims tend to come across as babies whenever Mohammed is brought up. I understand that he is the second most important figure in Islam and if someone comes up to your face mocking him then that's different but in no way has this film affected the lives of these Islamic Libyans in Benghazi. If this film has been used to legitimize the attack in anyway then I'll have lost a large portion of respect for some of the Islamic community.

[darthYENIK]

The president is sending in the Marines.

 

Edit: Just to make it clear, it's only a detachment of 50 Marines, to secure the embassy.

Edited September 12, 2012 by darthYENIK

[Doc Rikowski]

All main religions have an history full of bloodshed.

 

Christianity wiped out tens of millions of people in the past 15 centuries in the name of god.

 

Let's not act like we are the good civilized guys cause we are not.

 

At the best we improved a bit on the religious tolerance side but only in the past 50 years or so.

 

Let's not forget that the KKK was a religious association that burned people alive on a cross still in the 50's and that in South Africa white Christian were holding in slavery millions till the 90's...

[Typhus]

Let's not act like we are the good civilized guys cause we are not.

Compared to people willing to kill over a movie, I'd say that we're clearly superior.

But by all means, keep defending murderous bigots.

[na89340qv0n34b09q340]

 

Let's not act like we are the good civilized guys cause we are not.

Compared to people willing to kill over a movie, I'd say that we're clearly superior.

But by all means, keep defending murderous bigots.

Some religious people do crazy things because some of their ideas are truly crazy (that should be read as having a neutral connotation), especially when they're expressed to you by people who truly and honestly believe every word of them. Yeah, you could be a good muslim and still go to heaven without killing people, but you know it's your mission to spread the words of the prophet Muhammad, and what better way than to kill people and strike fear into the hearts of all the non-believers, and destroy all blasphemous material. Actually I pulled that out of my ass, but I imagine the thought process is similar.

 

We (first-world) go to war with our own citizens in the interest of big business, we're all a bit demented.

[Robinski]

 

Let's not act like we are the good civilized guys cause we are not.

Compared to people willing to kill over a movie, I'd say that we're clearly superior.

But by all means, keep defending murderous bigots.

To be fair, from the years 1991 to 2003 (when the figures were released) the TV event that garnered the most complaints in the UK was a showing of The Last Temptation of Christ. Not the mention the fire bomb attacks on Saint Michel theatre in Paris because it showed the film.

 

Just saying, while Christian fundamental extremists might not be as violent as extremists from other religions, they aren't pacifists who don't get fired up about art..

[Captain VXR]

Anders Behring Breivik, Timothy McVeigh, every single Northern Irish paramilitary. All Christians. All murderers.

 

Pretty much all religions other than perhaps Rastafarianism and Buddhism have their violent nutjobs and are all a bunch of woo. There maybe violent passages in the Koran, but also there are a multitude of them in the Bible/Torah and probably every single religious book.

 

I'm not going to judge the ordinary Muslims I interact with based on the mob in the same way that I do not judge all Catholics on the IRA, for example.