NOVANEWS
By Nureddin Sabir
Editor, Redress Information & Analysis
Nureddin Sabir considers the possible motives of the Israeli creator and Jewish financiers of the film, “Innocence of Muslims”, which gratuitously insults the Prophet Muhammad and Islam and has sparked riots in Egypt and Libya, resulting in the killing of four American diplomats at the US consulate in Benghazi.
In Egypt and in Libya popular outrage at a film on the Prophet Muhammad has escalated into violence.
In Libya’s second city, Benghazi, gunmen believed to be Salafis belonging to a group called Katibat Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law Brigade) stormed the US consulate and set it on fire, killing the ambassador and three of his staff.
Meanwhile, in Egypt rioters scaled the walls of the US embassy in Cairo, tore down the American flag and burned it. Judging from the prevalence of black flags and bearded, unkempt men among the demonstrators, they too seem to be Salafis, or at least spearheaded by Salafis.
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It is hard to feel sympathy for the United States and its officials, given Washington’s buttressing of the Israeli occupation and its history of sustaining brutal dictatorships, from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to Mubarak’s Egypt and Libya’s Gaddafi.
However, my first reaction to the events in Benghazi and Cairo was one of despair and revulsion. “Here we go again,” I thought to myself, “Muslims rampaging, burning and killing on behalf of a faith which claims peace and compassion as principal pillars. It all seemed like a replay of the bloody protests against the burning of Qurans by Americans, a jaded record played again and again by a bankrupt fan with nothing new to say for himself and nothing to offer to others.
