Horrific mob violence in Libya
Barb ShellyThe attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya is incomprehensible. U.S. intervention saved the citizens of Benghazi from an almost certain massacre when Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s thugs were closing in, and a year later they launch a fatal attack because of hysteria over a video. There were also protests outside of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
This is for certain: People in those lands do not understand our freedoms, and we do not understand the mindset that drives a mob to murderous actions over a video. Yet the Arab Spring movement in Libya and elsewhere was about people claiming to want the kinds of freedoms that Americans take as a given.
On the other hand, the film in question, produced by a California real estate director, doesn’t sound like a particularly wise use of our freedoms. The New York Times today describes it as “amateurish,” with the trailer featuring “ cartoonish scenes depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a child of uncertain parentage, a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug.”
It sounds as though it was designed to offend Muslims. We certainly have that freedom, but it’s not a great way to use our time and talents.
Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other diplomats died trying to bridge a gulf among cultures and peoples. The headwinds were too strong. The events of last night are horrible.
JR Beillenhouser
8 months, 1 week agoThe Arab Spring was a farce that you and the rest of the liberal media created. Your naivete in foreign policy is truly amazing. Even as one of your own reporters was carried away in the crowd and gang raped, you cheered the protesters instead of understanding that the only democracy that was going to come out of that situation was a theocracy.
Now you have it, now you own it.
JR Beillenhouser
8 months, 1 week agoOne more thing.
Democracy is a great thing, but without freedom it is nothing.
We should be supporting freedom in the world not Democracy. Democracy will be born out of freedom, but freedom doesn’t have to come out of Democracy.
Again, the liberal media doesn’t seem to get this simple concept. For all their talk about Democracy, they seemed to forget that without freedom there is no true Democracy.
The Arab Spring is going to result in one democratic vote followed by 100 years of theocratic rule that is going to make Mubarak look like Sister Teresa. Just like the Khomeni did with the Shah.
Matt Henry
8 months, 1 week agoI would add, JR, that Democracy and freedom cannot survive without some guarantees of basic human rights for all people, something no arab state is ever going to be willing to give and why the “arab spring” was a death knell to all secularism and other religions in the region. This right here is why we need to get out of the UN and form another body that guarantees admission only to countries that guarantee certain basic human rights and not to murderous dictators, regimes and cults like the Brotherhood. Libya will still have a vote on the next big crisis. So will Egypt.
On to my comment….
The first sentence of this post tells us everything we need to know about this poster. Incomprehensible? To whom? Have we not watched the rise of radical, tyrannical Islam in Libya and Egypt since their governments fell? The only way this is inconceivable is if you are naive enough to think that the radical Islamists who now control these countries see us as anything other than apostates who need to be wiped out, irrespective of the fact that we saved them from Quaddafi.
Not a wise use of our freedoms? Holy cow. All this comment does is prove that Barb is perfectly willing to cave to violence. This obscure little film is no more insulting than the the vast quantities of insults to other religions that are perfectly acceptable in this country. “The Book of Mormon” on broadway? To Barb the ONLY reason this was “not a wise use” of our freedoms is because Mormoms didn’t go out and start blowing stuff up immediately after it premiered. Then maybe Barb would be more interested in respecting their culture. Would she then lament that it was simply designed to offend muslims?
This may have been a kick to the face of Barb’s worldview. Well it’s about time she moved out of fantasyland….
George Hunsucker
Northland
8 months, 1 week agoI am sure the big zero is really “offended” or some other weasel word. His pacifism is making the world a much more dangerous place for Americans. Maybe he can have another similarity to jimmy II by letting some country take Americans as prisoners…What a “leader” we have in jimmy II.
These 4 American deaths are on his hands…
Joe Jones
8 months, 1 week agoThe “Three O Clock Call” came—and on deck was our Polynesian, Alinskyite, Socialist-New party member Boy King. And of course all he can do is bow and scrape
Hows that three BILLION in our hard earned tax dollars that you gave to the Muslim Brotherhood lookin now Billary?
Shades of 1980 and King Jimmy Ist with the hostage incident….will Americans be smart enough to dump king Jimmy II?
Stay tuned. God help us!
Kent Mueller
8 months, 1 week agoSomething being missed in the discussion is how Democracy in Libya has progressed pretty much the way our founding fathers said it would go.
We do not live in a democracy, and Libya today is a great example of why we don’t want to be a democracy.
A democracy leaves the minority populations, of whatever type, vulnerable to the whims of the majority.
Matt Henry
8 months, 1 week agoTrue enough, Kent, but don’t forget that even a Republic can lead to tyranny if there are not certain inalienable rights granted to us not by government but by God. Our government, duly elected or not, cannot pass laws stifling our criticism of the goverment. It has been tried and has failed. What this region is sorely lacking is not more political control for the masses but more belief in these fundamental rights that we not only take for granted but often choose to give away.
Mark Hastert
8 months agoUnderneath all the hype and hysteria this is a good example of how evil religious zealotry can be. the maker of the film who pretended to be an American/Isreali but actually a Coptic Christian with a grudge apparently against Muslims and Jews. The Muslim zealots stirred up by radical clerics destroy and kill in the name of God. One has to wonder if the religious evil doesn’t far outweigh the good. We pass laws banning Sharia law and laws that are the Christian equivalent. “Allahu Akbar”!, Praise Jesus”!….or I’ll kill you
Phil Cardarella
8 months agoTurns out that the violence in Bengazi was not “mob violence” at all — just a well-planned terrorist attack taking advantage of a peaceful demonstration.
OK, we do not execute blasphemers — any more. We don’t stone adulterers — or there would be at least one opening in the GOP Senate ranks. But, those who want to limit personal freedoms based on Biblical biases are not different from those who advocate Sharia law. Catholic bishops and fundamentalist ministers differ from ayatollahs in degree, not in aim. Neither are willing to limit their power to pursuasion, not force of law.
By the way, Mohammed’s stricture against showing his image was an attempt to prevent the “idol worship” that some saw in the veneration of statues and icons by Christians — a big controversy among Christians in the 6th & 7th century. It had nothing to do with Mohammed wanting to avoid ridicule of his image because he was so important. Quite the opposite.
In fact, he would probably be appalled at the “veneration” being shown to his image by it not being allowed. After all, he would be the first to tell you that there is no God but God, and Mohammed was — while a prophet — merely a man like any other.
Ken Whisler
Parkville
8 months agoIt was not “mob violence”. It was a well planned and orchestrated act of war.