Our erstwhile ally in Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is responding to the brutal murder of U.S. ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other embassy staff in Benghazi on Wednesday. Stevens was reportedly suffocated to death by the attacking mob which attacked the consulate because of a small film shown in the United States that was deemed as insulting to the Muhammad. Karzai then offered his own take on the murders by denouncing the “inhuman and abusive act” of the . . . filmmakers.
President Obama heralded Stevens as someone who “[t]hroughout the Libyan revolution, he selflessly served our country and the Libyan people at our mission in Benghazi . . . and supported Libya’s transition to democracy. His legacy will endure wherever human beings reach for liberty and justice. I am profoundly grateful for his service to my administration, and deeply saddened by this loss.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai then stepped forward to denounce the “inhuman and abusive act” of the filmmakers and criticized them for causing “enmity and confrontation between the religions and cultures of the world.” I have not seen this film and have little interest in doing so. However, those filmmakers have a right to portray Muhammad in any fashion that they wish. It is the basis for free speech. The continued pattern of Muslim extremists killing people as a protest to intolerance is facially absurd and little more than a rationalization for violence. For Karzai to pick up on that theme demonstrates his fundamental disagreement with key free speech and free exercise values. It also shows the dangers of the Obama Administration’s effort to create an international blasphemy standard with its Muslim allies.
The Obama Administration has been working to develop an international standard for blasphemy prosecutions. The West has steadily yielded to the demands of religious groups that free speech must be curtailed in the name of faith. At the same time, Western governmental and religious leaders have denounced agnostics and atheists as one of the greatest threats facing the West (here and here and here and here). President Obama and Hillary Clinton have been facilitating this trend by working with Muslim nations to develop an international standard allowing for the prosecution of those who insult religion. The Administration has drawn a dangerous line with Muslim countries in first supporting the concept of an international blasphemy standard. As I have mentioned before, the efforts of the Obama Administration to work with these countries on an international blasphemy standard is a threat to free speech around the world. After first supporting an international blasphemy standard, the Administration sought to get Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other countries to adopt the Brandenburg standard as the basis for such prosecutions. This case also shows why the use of the Brandenburg standard is so dangerous in the hands of such officials who view free speech as the cause of imminent violence. Past cases show that even the suggestion of blasphemy is enough to trigger violent riots in some Muslim nations. Because any joke or image of the Prophet can trigger violence, the standard is immediately satisfied in countries like Egypt and Pakistan, which can then claim some legal legitimacy under the standard created with the United States.
Secretary of State Clinton continues to push for the implementation of the new international effort to criminalize certain forms of anti-religious speech as our Muslim allies expand their definition of blasphemy.
Source: Guardian
The death of our ambassador and these other Americans was simply murder. It was not caused by a film or the exercise of free speech. It was caused by the continued failure of leaders like Karzai to stand up to extremists who believe that violence is warranted whenever people insult your faith or a religious figure. There is a global struggle today over free speech, not just in the Middle East but in the West. The solution is not to enable or legitimate efforts by people like Karzai to prosecute those who “cause” violence by engaging in unpopular or blasphemous speech.
Source: National Journal
To think that a youtube video inspired this is evidence of what Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, an expert in geopolitical strategy, says in that book of the U.S.eh? citizenry’s awareness of the rest of the world: “its populace is self-deluded and, frankly, ignorant about the rest of the world”.
It brings up “Political Science”:
“To echo raff and Darren, among others, would somebody please explain to me why we are still there?” (OS)
That was rhetorical, right? You weren’t really asking about oil and protecting Saudi Arabia from it’s fellow Muslim neighbors, right?
JCT, You don’t walk on eggshells for crazy, hate filled, people. It simply doesn’t work.
Nick… The difference is that Christians have learned to ‘turn the other cheek’ when it comes to ‘blasphemy’ of their prophets/saints… Our culture accepts and in some ways, enjoys that mockery and protects it because our Culture fully embraces free speech.
We also know full well that this sort of mockery of Islam leads to bad things…that the Culture in other parts of the world is not so forgiving about free speech and that the extremists in other nations aren’t rational.
So my question is, what was the point of the movie? It clearly isn’t a documentary about Islam or a political cartoon style editoral, to me it is clear that they simply wanted to degrade and insult those of the Islamic faith. So while the vast majority of the blood is on the hands of the extremists, there is an amount on the hands of those who knowingly incite violence.
Am I saying free speech and blasphemy should be outlawed? No. But I am saying that when individuals on our side are doing things that furthers the divide between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’, we should be denouncing them just as much as we denounce those who react to their foolishness.
An analogy: There is a hornets nest in a tree on the far edge of my lawn, I can spray it with a water hose and not likely get stung…I have a right to spray it, but the hornets are going to be happy about it. I should I exercise my right ‘just because I can’? What if one of my friends is on the other side of the yard, should I do it then because its my right?
Sometimes we should consider what the rest of the world thinks, especially our allies (not talking about Karzai), about our understanding of Libya:
(Scoop Independent News, New Zealand). No less than Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski (I am reading his book “Strategic Vision”) says in that book of the U.S.eh? citizenry’s awareness of the rest of the world:
(The Failure of Applied American Epistemology). Libya was in better shape, in terms of “the blessings of liberty and the common welfare” than a lot of other nations before it was invaded by the U.S.:
(ibid) I dare say Americans would be incensed if their country was invaded and their social security was removed and given to oil companies.
When you lie down down with dogs you get fleas. Then you get bit. Then you get killed.
Are the neo-cons “Shocked” that this happened ? Are they outraged ?
Will they call for immediate sanctions, and retaliations. Perhaps we should invade Iran now for this terrible incident.
….. Or maybe we can develop a saner and wiser foreign policy.
JCTheBigTree, Are you serious? Abuse it? We have art and films involving urine, feces, Jesus, Saint Mary..AND NOBODY DIED! You’re an enabler.
Very good post, JCTheBigTree
To echo raff and Darren, among others, would somebody please explain to me why we are still there? It did not work for the British in the 19th century, the Soviets in the 20th and it is not going to work for us in the 21st.
I have a Muslim friend, who is one of the smartest psychiatrists I know. He was born and raised in Syria. My daughter once asked him a similar question to the one posed by Rodney King, “Why can’t they all just sit down and talk it out?”
He patted her on the shoulder and replied, “They have been fighting like that for more than three thousand years, so the US is not going to get them to stop in just a generation, because it is a way of life over there.”
This has nothing to do with blasphemy laws, this is about a couple of morons using their right to free speech to unnecessarily mock a religion and a group of extremists taking too much offense to that mocking and murdering people.
We need to work towards religious sensitivity and understanding on both sides of the coin.
Just because we have the freedom of speech doesn’t mean we should abuse it. The pastor who has promoted this video has caused protests by buring the Koran in the past, he is a hate monger and his hate mongering has now led to American deaths…regardless of how murderous those with the blood on their hands are.
Blasphemy laws and anything restricting free speech is completely ridiculous, but so is continuing to incite other cultures/religions and abusing that right.
http://theweek.com/article/index/233148/the-death-of-an-american-in-libya
“We live in a world where American provocateurs can easily arouse the militancy of Muslim extremists who are more ubiquitous than even I would like to admit, or, at the very least, allow bad people to use extant anti-American sentiment to whip crowds into frenzies. In either case, innocent people, including Americans, die.
On Twitter, the first instinct of a lot of Americans was retributive justice. But the U.S. government’s sensitivity about the mood of the violent protesters is maddening but necessary. Being aggressive would cause more unnecessary dying.
Those who use the gift of institutionally and legally-protected free speech to exploit and prey upon the vulnerability of certain people to violence ought to be shamed. ” Mark Ambinder
There all Islamic radicals, call the exterminator
With friends like that, who needs enemies?
“How did an obscure film come to have international ramifications?
A trailer of the film was first posted on YouTube by a user called “sam bacile” in July 2012, and has received about 11,000 views to date.
The trailer began to get much more attention in September. On September 4, the same user posted a version dubbed in Arabic, which has garnered more than 70,000 views.
Morris Sadek, a Coptic Christian born in Egypt but who lives in the US, told AP he had been promoting the film on his website. He also tweeted a link to the trailer on September 9.
Sadek, the head of the National American Coptic Assembly, is known for his vehemently anti-Islam views, and told the Wall Street Journal that “the violence that it [the film] caused in Egypt is further evidence of how violent the religion and people are”.
Terry Jones, the Florida pastor whose burning of Qurans in 2011 spurred riots across the Muslim world leading to several deaths, also reportedly promoted the film.
The Arabic version of the trailer received heavy media coverage in Egypt last week, including by controversial TV host Sheikh Khaled Abdallah, who reported on the film on September 8. A clip of the show was posted to YouTube on September 9, where it has received almost 400,000 views so far.” Al Jazeera
“Well it seems now the fruits of Secretary Clinton’s blashphemy law efforts have ripened and now she has the death of one of her employees before her. Maybe now she can see the folly of some of her ways.” (Darren Smith)
Holy Shite!
Right on Professor! We need leadership in our country and the world! Leading from behind is following!!!
God bless the 4 patriots who were slain for their belief I. Freedom!
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/09/the-movie-so-offensive-that-egyptians-just-stormed-the-us-embassy-over-it/262225/
Well it seems now the fruits of Secretary Clinton’s blashphemy law efforts have ripened and now she has the death of one of her employees before her. Maybe now she can see the folly of some of her ways.
With allies such as President Karzai, its no wonder we still get into bad situations.
I agree it was murder and the culprits should be brought to justice. I also think Karzai’s response gives us one more reason to leave AFghanistan, Now.